Esperion Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ESPR) stock fell -9.15% on Monday to $1.29 against a previous-day closing price of $1.42. With 4.62 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 3.14 million shares. During the session, the Drug Manufacturers – Specialty & Generic company that operates in wider Healthcare sector, reached to the highest price of $1.4499 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $1.2900. The 52-week range on ESPR shows that it touched its highest point at $8.87 and its lowest point at $1.12 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $10.28. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.14.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of ESPR was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -3.01%, but this was down by -10.42% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -9.15% while six-month performance fell -16.77%. The stock lost -82.85% in the past year, while it has lost -79.29% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for ESPR yields -2.81 with Next year EPS estimates of 0.14. For the next quarter, that number is -0.43. This implies an EPS growth rate of 62.20% for this year and 106.90% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 16.90% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 12.80%.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 109.24 million ESPR shares are outstanding with a float of 106.51 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 15.18 million, which was 14.19% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Sheldon L. Koenig as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Benjamin O. Looker serves as its Gen. Counsel.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 85.75% of ESPR’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 51.04% of ESPR, in contrast to 21.28% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 14.92%. As the largest shareholder in ESPR with 12.28% of the stake, Wasatch Advisors, Inc. holds 13,139,556 shares worth 13,139,556. A second-largest stockholder of ESPR, Armistice Capital LLC, holds 9,193,000 shares, controlling over 8.59% of the firm’s shares. Millennium Management LLC is the third largest shareholder in ESPR, holding 5,366,452 shares or 5.02% stake. With a 3.92% stake in ESPR, the BB Biotech AG is the largest stakeholder. A total of 4,194,064 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Wasatch Small Cap Growth Fund, which owns about 3.80% of ESPR stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 4,060,881 shares valued at 6.5 million. Wasatch Ultra Growth Fund holds 3.36% of the stake in ESPR, owning 3,595,975 shares worth 5.75 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Jun 29, 2023, ESPR reported revenue of $18.84M and operating income of -$52.38M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was -$52.06M and diluted EPS was -$1.05.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for ESPR since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With ESPR analysts setting a high price target of $22.00 and a low target of $2.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $11.13. Based on these targets, ESPR could surge 1605.43% to reach the target high and rise by 55.04% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 762.79% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded ESPR stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 3 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 952 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 18 while that of sell transactions has risen to 19 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 330,561 while 41,498 shares were sold.
