Viridian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VRDN) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRDN) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $30.00 to $38.00. The stock had previously closed at $14.19, but opened at $16.10. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. Viridian Therapeutics shares last traded at $15.98, with a volume of 6,540,406 shares.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VRDN. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Viridian Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 target price on shares of Viridian Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday. BTIG Research raised their price target on Viridian Therapeutics from $46.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Viridian Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $23.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $28.00 target price (down previously from $31.00) on shares of Viridian Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.18.

Institutional Trading of Viridian Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Maverick Capital Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Viridian Therapeutics by 22.9% in the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 3,307,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,036,000 after purchasing an additional 615,531 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viridian Therapeutics by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,234,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,632,000 after buying an additional 233,331 shares in the last quarter. Novo Holdings A S lifted its holdings in shares of Viridian Therapeutics by 81.8% during the 2nd quarter. Novo Holdings A S now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,020,000 after acquiring an additional 900,000 shares during the period. Perceptive Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Viridian Therapeutics by 71.1% during the 4th quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 1,730,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,684,000 after acquiring an additional 719,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vestal Point Capital LP bought a new stake in Viridian Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at about $21,780,000.

Viridian Therapeutics Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.40 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a quick ratio of 15.82, a current ratio of 15.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company’s 50-day moving average is $15.03 and its 200-day moving average is $14.99.

Viridian Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VRDN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($1.02) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.87) by ($0.15). The company had revenue of $0.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.09 million. Viridian Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 79,185.77% and a negative return on equity of 83.18%. Equities research analysts expect that Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viridian Therapeutics Company Profile

Viridian Therapeutics, Inc, a biotechnology company, discover and develops treatments for serious and rare diseases. The company's product pipeline includes VRDN-001, a monoclonal antibody targeting insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor that is in Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of thyroid eye disease (TED); and VRDN-003, a next generation IGF-1R humanized monoclonal antibodies targeting IGF-1R and incorporating half-life extension technology for the treatment of TED.