Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases New Position in Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ESPR) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 44,658 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $98,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Esperion Therapeutics by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,454,216 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $5,399,000 after purchasing an additional 385,099 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 31.0% during the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 932,008 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,050,000 after buying an additional 220,730 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 99.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 309,671 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 154,509 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 55.0% in the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 255,066 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 90,522 shares during the period. Finally, Sigma Planning Corp lifted its stake in shares of Esperion Therapeutics by 1,455.8% during the 4th quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 190,441 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $419,000 after acquiring an additional 178,200 shares during the last quarter. 47.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESPR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Esperion Therapeutics from $4.00 to $3.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Esperion Therapeutics from $5.00 to $4.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price target on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down from $7.00) on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $6.25.

Esperion Therapeutics Price Performance

ESPR opened at $0.78 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.87. Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $0.73 and a 1 year high of $3.94. The stock has a market cap of $154.69 million, a P/E ratio of -1.22 and a beta of 0.75.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $65.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $54.97 million. Equities analysts expect that Esperion Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.29 EPS for the current year.

About Esperion Therapeutics

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.