Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on ESPR. Needham & Company LLC reduced their target price on Esperion Therapeutics from $8.00 to $6.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $16.00 target price on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Esperion Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.17.

Esperion Therapeutics Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:ESPR opened at $2.10 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $412.08 million, a P/E ratio of -2.44 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $1.85 and its 200-day moving average is $2.12. Esperion Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $0.71 and a 1-year high of $3.40.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 12th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $73.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $51.90 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Esperion Therapeutics will post -0.04 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Esperion Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 136.5% during the 1st quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 9,944,064 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $26,650,000 after buying an additional 5,739,800 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 9,129,647 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $24,467,000 after buying an additional 238,544 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 71.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,826,546 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $23,655,000 after buying an additional 3,688,796 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 94.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,303,596 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $9,554,000 after buying an additional 2,087,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 3,278.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 572,323 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,271,000 after buying an additional 555,382 shares in the last quarter. 47.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Esperion Therapeutics Company Profile

Esperion Therapeutics, Inc, a pharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes medicines for the treatment of patients with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Its marketed products include NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid) and NEXLIZET (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets that are oral, once-daily, non-statin medicines for the treatment of primary hyperlipidemia in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease who require additional lowering of LDL-C.