Federated Global Investment Manag recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Merus N.V. (NASDAQ:MRUS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 0.13% to 3.6 million shares with purchase of 4800.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.77% valued currently at $55.65 million. In addition, Deerfield Management Co. LP raised its holdings by 0.54 million to 2.52 million shares. And Wellington Management Co. LLP has lifted its position by 9.51% or 0.17 million shares – to 1.94 million shares.
With over 0.12 million Merus N.V. (MRUS) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $14.25 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $1.64 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -42.56% and its price on 01/23/23 lost nearly -3.26%. Currently, there are 46.06M common shares owned by the public and among those 42.54M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 11 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for MRUS have a consensus price objective of $36.20. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $46.00 and a low of $28.00. The average price target is 60.64% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 49.11% over that period. But an upside of 69.02% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $35.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 12 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 7 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 90,576 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 5 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 61,483 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Merus N.V. are Federated Hermes Kaufmann Small C, Federated Hermes Kaufmann Fund, and FTIF SICAV – Biotechnology Discov. Federated Hermes Kaufmann Small C owns 2.04 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $31.52 million. FTIF SICAV – Biotechnology Discov now owns shares totaling to 1.82% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Merus N.V. (NASDAQ: MRUS) opened at $14.81, up $0.08 from a prior closing price of $14.73. However, the script later moved the day high at 14.81, down -3.26%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -7.65% and -34.63% over the past three months. MRUS shares are trading -7.89% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -45.28% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $12.03 and touched a high of $30.81 over the same period. MRUS has an average intraday trading volume of 292.51K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -6.39%, -7.48%, and -30.07% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Merus N.V. (NASDAQ: MRUS) shares accounts for 78.80% of the company’s 46.06M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 29.13%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 34.89% and 21.02% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $658.92M and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.82. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$1.45. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 4.13% over the week and 5.59% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Merus N.V. (MRUS) will achieve an EPS of -$0.63 for the current quarter, -$0.66 for the next quarter and -$2.56 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.89 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.33. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$0.39 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 40.80%, and -76.00% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 11 brokerage firm advisors rate Merus N.V. (MRUS) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.40. Specifically, 11 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 0 of the 11 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the MRUS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Stifel stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on August 02, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $38. BMO Capital Markets coverage for the Merus N.V. (MRUS) stock in a research note released on February 11, 2022 offered a Outperform rating with a price target of $45. Needham was of a view on February 10, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while Guggenheim gave the stock Buy rating on November 17, 2021, issuing a price target of $44. Citigroup on their part issued Buy rating on June 07, 2021.
