89bio (NASDAQ:ETNB) Earns Sell (D-) Rating from Weiss Ratings

89bio (NASDAQ:ETNB)‘s stock had its “sell (d-)” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Weiss Ratings in a report issued on Saturday,Weiss Ratings reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of 89bio in a report on Monday, November 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $29.00 target price on shares of 89bio in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of 89bio to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.33.

89bio Price Performance

NASDAQ:ETNB traded up $0.22 on Friday, reaching $6.31. 1,863,182 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,074,441. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.22. 89bio has a 12 month low of $5.99 and a 12 month high of $16.63. The firm has a market cap of $669.68 million, a PE ratio of -2.17 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 11.66, a current ratio of 11.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Insider Activity at 89bio

In other news, CEO Rohan Palekar bought 10,000 shares of 89bio stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $8.35 per share, with a total value of $83,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 466,236 shares in the company, valued at $3,893,070.60. The trade was a 2.19 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Quoc Le-Nguyen sold 10,963 shares of 89bio stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.49, for a total transaction of $71,149.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 271,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,764,196.17. This represents a 3.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have acquired a total of 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $202,950 over the last 90 days. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of 89bio by 14.2% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 15,158,218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,140,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882,108 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in 89bio during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,631,000. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its holdings in shares of 89bio by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 3,006,038 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,245,000 after buying an additional 686,673 shares during the period. Walleye Capital LLC grew its position in shares of 89bio by 1,232.2% during the 3rd quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 435,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,221,000 after buying an additional 402,624 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exome Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of 89bio during the third quarter valued at $2,224,000.

About 89bio

89bio, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of liver and cardio-metabolic diseases. Its lead product candidate is pegozafermin, a glycoPEGylated analog of fibroblast growth factor 21 for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; and for the treatment of severe hypertriglyceridemia.