Replimune Group (NASDAQ:REPL) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Replimune Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:REPL) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after BMO Capital Markets upgraded the stock from an underperform rating to an outperform rating. The stock had previously closed at $11.20, but opened at $12.00. BMO Capital Markets now has a $16.00 price target on the stock. Replimune Group shares last traded at $11.3010, with a volume of 746,935 shares.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on REPL. Leerink Partners reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $2.00 target price (down from $11.00) on shares of Replimune Group in a report on Monday, April 13th. Wall Street Zen raised Replimune Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. HC Wainwright reiterated a “sell” rating on shares of Replimune Group in a research report on Monday, April 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Replimune Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded shares of Replimune Group from an “overweight” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Replimune Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Christopher Sarchi sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.24, for a total transaction of $110,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 180,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,672,088.88. This represents a 6.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Replimune Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in REPL. RTW Investments LP boosted its position in Replimune Group by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 7,140,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,404,000 after purchasing an additional 744,620 shares during the period. Fcpm Iii Services B.V. raised its position in Replimune Group by 6.4% in the third quarter. Fcpm Iii Services B.V. now owns 4,158,368 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,424,000 after purchasing an additional 248,672 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Replimune Group by 26.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,693,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,897,000 after purchasing an additional 768,982 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Replimune Group by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,479,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,579,000 after purchasing an additional 9,707 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Braidwell LP boosted its position in shares of Replimune Group by 550.3% in the third quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 2,750,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,523,000 after buying an additional 2,327,205 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.53% of the company’s stock.

Replimune Group Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 5.60 and a quick ratio of 5.60. The company has a market cap of $917.93 million, a PE ratio of -3.22 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $6.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.29.

Replimune Group (NASDAQ:REPL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, June 29th. The company reported ($0.76) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.66) by ($0.10). Sell-side analysts expect that Replimune Group, Inc. will post -3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Replimune Group

Replimune Group, Inc is a clinical?stage biotechnology company focused on developing next?generation oncolytic immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors. The company’s proprietary “RP” platform leverages genetically engineered herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) vectors armed with immunomodulatory payloads to selectively infect, replicate within and destroy cancer cells, while also stimulating systemic antitumor immune responses.

Replimune’s lead candidate, RP1, incorporates GM-CSF and a fusogenic protein to enhance both direct oncolysis and immune activation.