Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) Receives $56.33 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $56.33.

MRUS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 price target on shares of Merus in a report on Monday, May 13th. StockNews.com cut Merus from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Merus in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Merus in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Merus from $49.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th.

Merus Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ MRUS opened at $44.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.91 and a beta of 1.10. Merus has a 12-month low of $19.81 and a 12-month high of $52.03. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $44.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.04.

Merus (NASDAQ:MRUS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.59) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.83) by $0.24. The business had revenue of $7.89 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.94 million. Merus had a negative return on equity of 44.13% and a negative net margin of 390.36%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Merus will post -3.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Merus

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MRUS. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Merus by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 12,084 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 3,916 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Merus by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 13,446 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 1,310 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Merus by 43.1% in the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 12,103 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 3,647 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Merus by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 93,354 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,201,000 after acquiring an additional 28,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Merus by 30.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 774,953 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $18,273,000 after acquiring an additional 180,397 shares during the last quarter. 96.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Merus

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.