Short Interest in Erasca, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERAS) Rises By 5.9%

Erasca, Inc. (NASDAQ:ERAS) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 24,810,000 shares, a growth of 5.9% from the August 15th total of 23,420,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,070,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 12.0 days. Approximately 14.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Erasca

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Erasca by 82.2% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 21,479 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 9,689 shares during the last quarter. Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Erasca by 41.2% during the second quarter. Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Erasca by 27.0% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 47,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $113,000 after acquiring an additional 10,164 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Erasca by 66.1% during the first quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 29,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 11,541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Erasca during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. 67.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Erasca from $4.00 to $3.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. HC Wainwright raised their price objective on shares of Erasca from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Erasca currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $6.00.

Erasca Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of ERAS stock traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $2.96. The stock had a trading volume of 50,853 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,543,160. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.42. Erasca has a 12 month low of $1.51 and a 12 month high of $3.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $513.14 million, a PE ratio of -3.44 and a beta of 1.16.

Erasca (NASDAQ:ERAS) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.17) by ($0.12). As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Erasca will post -0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Erasca

Erasca, Inc, a clinical-stage precision oncology company, focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing therapies for patients with RAS/MAPK pathway-driven cancers. The company's lead product is naporafenib which is in phase 1b trial for patients with RAS Q16X solid tumors and plans to initiate a pivotal Phase 3 trial for patients with NRASm melanoma.