Vir Biotechnology Inc (NASDAQ: VIR) stock jumped 0.52% on Friday to $9.69 against a previous-day closing price of $9.64. With 1.12 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.45 million shares. The 52-week range on VIR shows that it touched its highest point at $31.55 and its lowest point at $7.72 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $29.75. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.38.
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 VIR was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 10.24%, but this was up by 18.17% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -23.70% while six-month performance fell -61.76%. The stock lost -64.52% in the past year, while it has lost -61.71% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for VIR yields -4.49 with Next year EPS estimates of -4.28. For the next quarter, that number is -1.01. This implies an EPS growth rate of -221.66% for this year and 8.21% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 133.24 million VIR shares are outstanding with a float of 87.97 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 6.13 million, which was 4.56% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Dr. Ann M. Hanly Ph.D. as the firm’s Executive VP & Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Phillip Pang M.D., Ph.D. serves as its Executive VP & Chief Medical Officer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 75.95% of VIR’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 33.71% of VIR, in contrast to 28.73% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 19.99%. As the largest shareholder in VIR with 10.14% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 13,606,412 shares worth 13,606,412. A second-largest stockholder of VIR, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 11,049,595 shares, controlling over 8.23% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in VIR, holding 7,173,428 shares or 5.34% stake. With a 4.30% stake in VIR, the iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 5,776,326 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, which owns about 3.39% of VIR stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 4,552,280 shares valued at 36.1 million. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trus holds 2.83% of the stake in VIR, owning 3,801,908 shares worth 30.15 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for VIR 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 VIR analysts setting a high price target of $95.00 and a low target of $12.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $29.75. Based on these targets, VIR could surge 880.39% to reach the target high and rise by 23.84% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 207.02% from current levels.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded VIR stock several times over the past three months with 2 Buys and 5 Sells. In these transactions, 3,500,000 shares were bought while 5,377,590 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 27 while that of sell transactions has risen to 141 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 4,637,593 while 10,318,684 shares were sold.
