Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Receives Outperform Rating from William Blair

William Blair reiterated their outperform rating on shares of Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) in a research report released on Monday morning, RTT News reports.

MRUS has been the topic of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Merus from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Merus from $40.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. HC Wainwright increased their price target on Merus from $48.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a buy rating and set a $66.00 price target on shares of Merus in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Truist Financial began coverage on Merus in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. They set a buy rating and a $69.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $56.33.

Merus Stock Performance

Shares of MRUS stock opened at $40.45 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of -13.26 and a beta of 1.10. Merus has a fifty-two week low of $18.21 and a fifty-two week high of $52.03.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.09) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.71) by ($0.38). Merus had a negative return on equity of 50.61% and a negative net margin of 352.56%. The company had revenue of $8.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.43 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Merus will post -3.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Merus

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Merus by 37.7% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,253 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Merus by 64.1% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,120 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 828 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Merus by 142.1% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,477 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 867 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Merus by 10.8% in the third quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 13,446 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $317,000 after acquiring an additional 1,310 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Merus in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.14% of the company’s stock.

Merus Company Profile

Merus N.V., a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, engages in the development of antibody therapeutics in the Netherlands. Its bispecific antibody candidate pipeline includes Zenocutuzumab (MCLA-128), which is in a phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer and castration-resistant prostate cancer, as well as in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors that harbor Neuregulin 1.