Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR)

Needham & Company LLC reissued their buy rating on shares of Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $8.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a buy rating and set a $16.00 price target on shares of Esperion Therapeutics in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of Esperion Therapeutics from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Esperion Therapeutics from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $2.90 to $2.50 in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Esperion Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $8.83.

Esperion Therapeutics Stock Up 5.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ ESPR opened at $2.34 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $2.32 and its 200-day moving average is $2.41. The stock has a market cap of $443.34 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.36 and a beta of 1.02. Esperion Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $0.70 and a twelve month high of $3.40.

Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.42. The firm had revenue of $137.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.11 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Esperion Therapeutics will post -0.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Esperion Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ESPR. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Esperion Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $131,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Esperion Therapeutics by 120.1% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 413,704 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 225,767 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its stake in Esperion Therapeutics by 159.1% in the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 1,116,655 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,094,000 after buying an additional 685,733 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Esperion Therapeutics by 81.2% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 39,350 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 17,636 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Esperion Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at $181,000. 47.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.