Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Mersana Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MRSN)

Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRSN) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 8,320 call options on the company. This is an increase of 1,954% compared to the typical volume of 405 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Mersana Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,620,000. Walleye Capital LLC boosted its position in Mersana Therapeutics by 1,205.0% in the third quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 2,021,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,567,000 after buying an additional 1,866,568 shares during the last quarter. Newtyn Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mersana Therapeutics in the third quarter worth $889,000. ClariVest Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mersana Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,114,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Mersana Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $449,000. Institutional investors own 93.92% of the company’s stock.

Mersana Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of MRSN traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $2.94. 1,420,792 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,096,803. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a current ratio of 3.36. The company has a market cap of $356.63 million, a PE ratio of -2.04 and a beta of 1.61. Mersana Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $0.80 and a 52-week high of $9.62. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $4.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.08.

Mersana Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.16). Mersana Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 465.80% and a negative return on equity of 282.36%. The company had revenue of $10.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.59 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.44) earnings per share. Mersana Therapeutics’s revenue was down 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Mersana Therapeutics will post -0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MRSN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Mersana Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush raised Mersana Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $2.00 to $7.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Mersana Therapeutics from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Mersana Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $6.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Guggenheim raised shares of Mersana Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $7.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mersana Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6.29.

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.