Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRSN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRSN) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $6.00.

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Lifesci Capital raised shares of Mersana Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Mersana Therapeutics from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Mersana Therapeutics from $4.00 to $3.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th.

Mersana Therapeutics Price Performance

MRSN stock opened at $2.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $269.90 million, a P/E ratio of -2.53 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $1.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $2.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 2.72 and a current ratio of 2.72. Mersana Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $1.15 and a 52-week high of $6.28.

Mersana Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MRSN) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 13th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $2.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.72 million. Mersana Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 333.91% and a negative net margin of 349.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 78.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.47) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mersana Therapeutics will post -0.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Martin H. Jr. Huber sold 50,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total value of $88,744.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 116,327 shares in the company, valued at $204,735.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 70,849 shares of company stock worth $129,184. Company insiders own 11.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mersana Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ClariVest Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Mersana Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $2,114,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mersana Therapeutics by 166.7% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 468,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,099,000 after purchasing an additional 293,115 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Mersana Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at about $226,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Mersana Therapeutics by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,274,370 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,109,000 after purchasing an additional 36,782 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Mersana Therapeutics by 976.7% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 9,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 8,575 shares in the last quarter. 93.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Mersana Therapeutics

Mersana Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops antibody drug conjugates (ADC) for cancer patients with unmet needs. The company develops XMT-1660, a B7-H4-targeted Dolasynthen ADC candidate; and XMT-2056, an immunosynthen ADC. It has research and development collaborations with Janssen Biotech, Inc, Ares Trading SA, Merck KGaA, and Asana BioSciences, LLC for the development of ADC product candidates.