Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Sector Perform” Rating for Morphic (NASDAQ:MORF)

Morphic (NASDAQ:MORF)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reissued by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $57.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $70.00. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price points to a potential upside of 2.26% from the stock’s current price.

Morphic Price Performance

MORF stock opened at $55.74 on Tuesday. Morphic has a 1 year low of $19.34 and a 1 year high of $62.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of -15.93 and a beta of 1.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.97.

Morphic (NASDAQ:MORF) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The company reported ($0.91) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.96) by $0.05. On average, equities research analysts expect that Morphic will post -4.07 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Marc Schegerin sold 43,936 shares of Morphic stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.80, for a total transaction of $2,451,628.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 37,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,115,210.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Marc Schegerin sold 43,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.80, for a total value of $2,451,628.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 37,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,115,210.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Praveen P. Tipirneni sold 21,582 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.79, for a total value of $1,204,059.78. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 42,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,368,843.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 125,790 shares of company stock worth $7,018,566. Insiders own 25.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Morphic

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MORF. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Morphic in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Morphic by 364.7% in the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $166,000 after acquiring an additional 4,515 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Morphic during the first quarter worth about $223,000. Arizona State Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Morphic during the fourth quarter worth about $232,000. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS grew its holdings in shares of Morphic by 9.3% in the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 7,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $245,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.25% of the company’s stock.

About Morphic

Morphic Holding, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers and develops oral small-molecule integrin therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, as well as fibrosis and cancer. Its lead product candidate MORF-057, an a4ß7-specific integrin inhibitor affecting inflammation is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.