Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on Equillium in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $5.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Equillium in a research report on Thursday, April 23rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Equillium in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $10.00 target price on the stock. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of Equillium in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Equillium in a research report on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $7.67.

Equillium Trading Down 15.8%

EQ opened at $2.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $137.84 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.81 and a beta of 1.67. Equillium has a 12 month low of $0.27 and a 12 month high of $2.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $2.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.57.

Equillium (NASDAQ:EQ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.02). On average, equities research analysts forecast that Equillium will post -0.22 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Equillium news, COO Christine Zedelmayer sold 120,312 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.50, for a total transaction of $300,780.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 62,586 shares in the company, valued at approximately $156,465. The trade was a 65.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last quarter, insiders sold 487,468 shares of company stock worth $990,467. 17.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Equillium

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC purchased a new stake in Equillium during the 4th quarter valued at about $9,057,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Equillium by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 5,608,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,693,000 after purchasing an additional 48,090 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in Equillium during the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,018,000. Aberdeen Group plc grew its stake in Equillium by 523.6% during the 4th quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 2,366,688 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,668,000 after purchasing an additional 1,987,162 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Equillium by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,076,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,218,000 after purchasing an additional 72,602 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.05% of the company’s stock.

Equillium Company Profile

Equillium, Inc (NASDAQ: EQ) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies to treat severe autoimmune diseases and prevent organ transplant rejection. The company’s lead therapeutic candidate, EQ001 (itolizumab), is a humanized monoclonal antibody that modulates T-cell activation by targeting the CD6 receptor. Equillium’s pipeline also includes additional biologic candidates aimed at addressing indications such as acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and lupus nephritis.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in La Jolla, California, Equillium in-licensed itolizumab from Biocon Limited, leveraging the antibody’s established safety profile in earlier clinical studies.