Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT) shares gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after Barclays upgraded the stock from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating. The stock had previously closed at $13.86, but opened at $18.23. Barclays now has a $22.00 price target on the stock. Sarepta Therapeutics shares last traded at $17.22, with a volume of 17,009,337 shares.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on SRPT. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $24.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from $25.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Guggenheim cut their target price on shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from $112.00 to $98.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.12.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SRPT. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Sarepta Therapeutics by 38.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,697,137 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,057,482,000 after purchasing an additional 2,437,855 shares during the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc raised its position in Sarepta Therapeutics by 91.1% in the 2nd quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 1,242,404 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,500,000 after purchasing an additional 592,125 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Sarepta Therapeutics by 438.0% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 712,581 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $45,477,000 after purchasing an additional 580,123 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Sarepta Therapeutics by 27.9% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,646,619 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $168,907,000 after purchasing an additional 577,848 shares during the period. Finally, EcoR1 Capital LLC raised its position in Sarepta Therapeutics by 67.8% in the 1st quarter. EcoR1 Capital LLC now owns 1,292,386 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $82,480,000 after purchasing an additional 522,386 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.68% of the company’s stock.

Sarepta Therapeutics Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a PE ratio of -6.23 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $24.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.20. The company has a current ratio of 4.02, a quick ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($3.42) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by ($5.62). Sarepta Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 14.88% and a negative net margin of 11.12%. The company had revenue of $744.86 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.75 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 80.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. will post 2.67 EPS for the current year.

About Sarepta Therapeutics

Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapeutics, gene therapies, and other genetic therapeutic modalities for the treatment of rare diseases. It offers EXONDYS 51 injection to treat duchenne muscular dystrophy (duchenne) in patients with confirmed mutation of the dystrophin gene that is amenable to exon 51 skipping; VYONDYS 53 for the treatment of duchenne in patients with confirmed mutation of the dystrophin gene that is amenable to exon 53 skipping; AMONDYS 45 for the treatment of duchenne in patients with confirmed mutation of the dystrophin gene; and ELEVIDYS, an adeno-associated virus based gene therapy for the treatment of ambulatory pediatric patients aged 4 through 5 years with duchenne with a confirmed mutation in the duchenne gene.