89bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETNB) Short Interest Up 5.2% in August

89bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:ETNB) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,840,000 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the July 31st total of 6,500,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 954,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.2 days.

Institutional Trading of 89bio

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. AJOVista LLC acquired a new position in shares of 89bio during the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of 89bio by 66.7% during the first quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 5,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of 89bio by 226.2% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 8,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 5,626 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new stake in 89bio during the second quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 89bio by 28.4% during the 1st quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 7,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ETNB. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of 89bio from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of 89bio from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of 89bio in a research report on Monday, July 1st. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $29.00 target price on shares of 89bio in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of 89bio from $37.00 to $33.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.14.

89bio Stock Down 7.6 %

89bio stock opened at $8.78 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $8.49 and its 200-day moving average is $9.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $863.78 million, a PE ratio of -4.37 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 13.92 and a quick ratio of 13.92. 89bio has a fifty-two week low of $6.57 and a fifty-two week high of $18.25.

89bio (NASDAQ:ETNB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The company reported ($0.48) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.56) by $0.08. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.52) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that 89bio will post -2.32 earnings per share for the current year.

89bio Company Profile

89bio, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of liver and cardio-metabolic diseases. Its lead product candidate is pegozafermin, a glycoPEGylated analog of fibroblast growth factor 21 for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; and for the treatment of severe hypertriglyceridemia.