Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MACK): Reassessing Prospects

Western Standard LLC has recently announced that it has increased stake in Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:MACK) by 33.06%. After grabbing 1.56 million shares, the institutional investor is now in possession of 0.39 million shares of the Healthcare Company. The new investment brought the stake of investor firm to 11.63% having worth around $18.58 million. Moreover, Point72 Asset Management LP increased its share by 0.77 million to have a control over 1.1 million shares.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MACK) concluded trading on 01/11/23 at a closing price of $12.12, with 1.05 million shares of worth about $12.74 million changed hands on the day. Half year performance of the stock remained positive as price took a surge of 106.12% during that period and on Wednesday the price saw a gain of about 1.85%. Currently the company’s common shares owned by public are about 13.41M shares, out of which, 13.26M shares are available for trading.

A deeper look into what the analysts at Wall Street are thinking about the price target of this stock provides us with the following: 2 analysts are covering the MACK stock and their offered price forecasts bring an average price target of $4.00. Over the next 12 months, analysts forecasted that the stock’s price could jump as high as $4.00 and could fall to a lowest price of $4.00. The stock’s current price level is -203.0% below of average price target set by the analysts, while a dip to estimated low would result in loss of -203.0% for the stock. However, touching the estimated high of $4.00 would mean a loss of -203.0% for the stock.

According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), insiders took part in trade of the company’s stock for 56 times over the past 12 months. They bought 204,918 shares in 56 of the transactions. In 0 selling transactions, insiders dumped 0 shares.

Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu, and DFA US Micro Cap Portfolio are the top 3 mutual funds which are holding stakes in Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is currently holding 0.37 million shares of worth totaling $4.41 million. The company recently came buying 0.0 shares which brought its stake up to 2.76% of the company’s outstanding shares. Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu sold 6200.0 shares, after which its hold over company’s outstanding shares shrunk to 1.53%, leaving 0.21 million shares with the mutual fund that have a worth of about $2.45 million. DFA US Micro Cap Portfolio, after buying 0.15 million shares, have now control over 1.11% of the stake in the company. It holds 0.0 shares of worth $1.77 million.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MACK) started trading at $11.85, below -$0.05 from concluding price of the previous day. However, the stock later moved at a day high price of 12.45, or with a gain of 1.85%. Stock saw a price change of 3.41% in past 5 days and over the past one month there was a price change of 3.24%. Year-to-date (YTD), MACK shares are showing a performance of 5.76% which increased to 220.63% when we look at its performance for past 12 months. Over the period of past 52 weeks, stock dropped to lowest price of $3.00 but also hit the highest price of $13.66 during that period. The average intraday trading volume for Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares is 716.39K. The stock is currently trading 8.01% above its 20-day simple moving average (SMA20), while that difference is up 16.42% for SMA50 and it goes to 91.41% higher than SMA200.

Western Standard LLC acquired 1.56 million shares of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. having value of about $18.58 million. Data submitted at the U.S SEC by Western Standard LLC revealed that the firm now holds 0.39 million shares in the company valued at close to $4698475.56, or have control over 33.06% stake in the company. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MACK) currently have 13.41M outstanding shares and institutions hold larger chunk of about 65.00% of that. Holding of mutual funds in the company is about 47.89% while other institutional holders and individual stake holders have control over 9.21% and 41.55% of the stake respectively.

The stock has a current market capitalization of $162.29M and its 3Y-monthly beta is at 1.89. It has posted earnings per share of -$0.11 in the same period. It has Quick Ratio of 30.40 while making debt-to-equity ratio of 0.00. Volatility of a stock is a metric used to know how much the price of that stock is under influence and for MACK, volatility over the week remained 4.02% while standing at 4.66% over the month.

Analysts are in expectations that Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MACK) stock would likely to be making an EPS of $0 in the current quarter, while forecast for next quarter EPS is $0 and it is $0 for next year. For the current quarter EPS, analysts have given the company a lowest target $0 which is $0 at the higher side of the target for the same. When we compare those targets with actual EPS, we find that company posted an EPS of -$1.08 in the same quarter a year ago. Stock’s fiscal year EPS is expected to rise by 19.10%. EPS is likely to shrink at an annualized rate of 5.60% for next 5-years, compared to annual growth of 56.90% made by the stock over the past 5-years.

Analysts at 2 brokerage firms have issued recommendations for the Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MACK)’s stock and average of those rates the stock at a “Hold” and assign it a score of 3.50. Out of those 2 Wall Street analysts, 0 recommended a “Buy” rating, while 1 were in favor recommending the stock as a “Hold” and 1 analyst recommended the stock as “Sell”.

Coverage by Robert W. Baird stated Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MACK) stock as a Neutral in their note to investors on May 27, 2016, suggesting a price target of $8 for the stock. On December 23, 2015, Mizuho Reiterated their recommendations, while on October 27, 2015, Oppenheimer Reiterated their ratings for the stock with a price target of $15. Stock get a Buy rating from Mizuho on April 21, 2015.