Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) Earns Buy Rating from HC Wainwright

Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $110.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 price target on shares of Vir Biotechnology in a report on Friday, May 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Vir Biotechnology from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.57.

Vir Biotechnology Price Performance

Shares of VIR traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $10.63. The stock had a trading volume of 131,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,012,921. The company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.67 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.77. Vir Biotechnology has a 1-year low of $7.61 and a 1-year high of $27.48.

Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported ($0.48) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.99) by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $56.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.71 million. Vir Biotechnology had a negative return on equity of 32.58% and a negative net margin of 677.69%. Vir Biotechnology’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.06) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Vir Biotechnology will post -3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vir Biotechnology news, EVP Ann M. Hanly sold 2,711 shares of Vir Biotechnology stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.05, for a total value of $27,245.55. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 132,069 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,327,293.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Vir Biotechnology news, EVP Ann M. Hanly sold 2,711 shares of Vir Biotechnology stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.05, for a total value of $27,245.55. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 132,069 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,327,293.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director George A. Scangos sold 17,722 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.65, for a total value of $206,461.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 112,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,316,321.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 99,436 shares of company stock worth $983,659 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 15.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vir Biotechnology

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Vir Biotechnology by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,375,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,362,000 after buying an additional 78,216 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Vir Biotechnology by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 861,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,072,000 after purchasing an additional 24,492 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Vir Biotechnology by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 753,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,576,000 after purchasing an additional 31,405 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in Vir Biotechnology by 41.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 708,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,636,000 after purchasing an additional 205,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Vir Biotechnology by 68.5% in the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 525,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,922,000 after purchasing an additional 213,477 shares in the last quarter. 65.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Vir Biotechnology

Vir Biotechnology, Inc, a commercial-stage immunology company, develops therapeutic products to treat and prevent serious infectious diseases. It offers tobevibart + elebsiran for the treatment of chronic hepatitis delta; elebsiran + PEG-IFN-a, tobevibart ± elebsiran ± PEG-IFN-a, and elebsiran+ TLR8+PD-1 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B; VIR-1388 and Cure mAb combination for the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus; VIR-8190 for the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus / human metapneumovirus; VIR-2981 for the treatment of influenza; VIR-1949 for the treatment of pre-cancerous HPV lesions; and VIR07229 and Sotrovimab for the treatment of COVID-19 infection under the Xevudy brand.