Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) Given “Buy” Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $205.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 68.57% from the company’s current price.

SRPT has been the topic of several other research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $152.00 to $167.00 in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from $176.00 to $160.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Sarepta Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, October 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. William Blair raised shares of Sarepta Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Sarepta Therapeutics from $226.00 to $203.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $181.33.

Sarepta Therapeutics Stock Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ SRPT traded up $1.19 during trading on Thursday, reaching $121.61. 1,484,714 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,234,525. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.19. The firm has a market cap of $11.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.29 and a beta of 0.81. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $125.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $132.80. Sarepta Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $75.85 and a 12-month high of $173.25.

Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SRPT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.06. Sarepta Therapeutics had a net margin of 3.14% and a return on equity of 5.32%. The firm had revenue of $362.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $394.38 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.27) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 38.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sarepta Therapeutics will post 1.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Ian Michael Estepan sold 5,985 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.36, for a total value of $822,099.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 33,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,662,822.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Sarepta Therapeutics news, CFO Ian Michael Estepan sold 5,985 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.36, for a total value of $822,099.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 33,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,662,822.56. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael Andrew Chambers bought 37,038 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $133.80 per share, for a total transaction of $4,955,684.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 284,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,003,749.20. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 7.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sarepta Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SRPT. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Sarepta Therapeutics by 102.8% in the first quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 2,453,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $317,630,000 after acquiring an additional 1,243,427 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Sarepta Therapeutics by 693.7% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 363,011 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $57,356,000 after purchasing an additional 317,277 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Sarepta Therapeutics by 2,257.8% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 240,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $31,135,000 after purchasing an additional 230,300 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in Sarepta Therapeutics by 146.3% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 270,941 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $42,809,000 after purchasing an additional 160,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL increased its stake in Sarepta Therapeutics by 303.7% in the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 174,282 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,537,000 after purchasing an additional 131,112 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.68% of the company’s stock.

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.