Arbutus Biopharma (NASDAQ:ABUS) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Arbutus Biopharma (NASDAQ:ABUS) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday.

ABUS has been the subject of several other reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $5.00 price objective on shares of Arbutus Biopharma in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Chardan Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $5.00 price target on shares of Arbutus Biopharma in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $5.50.

Arbutus Biopharma Stock Performance

Shares of ABUS stock opened at $3.49 on Friday. Arbutus Biopharma has a 1 year low of $2.30 and a 1 year high of $4.73. The stock has a market cap of $661.33 million, a PE ratio of -8.12 and a beta of 1.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $3.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.55.

Arbutus Biopharma (NASDAQ:ABUS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.01. Arbutus Biopharma had a negative return on equity of 68.18% and a negative net margin of 1,137.65%. The company had revenue of $1.57 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.20 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Arbutus Biopharma will post -0.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Arbutus Biopharma

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Whitefort Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Arbutus Biopharma by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Whitefort Capital Management LP now owns 13,241,916 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $43,301,000 after acquiring an additional 373,949 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Arbutus Biopharma by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,980,864 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $29,367,000 after purchasing an additional 62,282 shares in the last quarter. Two Seas Capital LP boosted its stake in shares of Arbutus Biopharma by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Two Seas Capital LP now owns 8,740,956 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,583,000 after buying an additional 353,568 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Arbutus Biopharma by 50.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,407,133 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $16,967,000 after buying an additional 1,472,652 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Arbutus Biopharma by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,482,136 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $11,390,000 after buying an additional 33,536 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 43.79% of the company’s stock.

About Arbutus Biopharma

Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, develops novel therapeutics for chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the United States. Its HBV product pipeline consists of imdusiran (AB-729), a proprietary subcutaneously-delivered RNAi therapeutic product candidate that suppresses all HBV antigens, including HBsAg expression.