Wells Fargo & Company Initiates Coverage on Vera Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VERA)

Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Vera Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VERA) in a report published on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued an overweight rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock.

VERA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Evercore ISI upgraded Vera Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Vera Therapeutics from $56.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Vera Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $60.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Vera Therapeutics from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on Vera Therapeutics from $30.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $59.22.

Vera Therapeutics Trading Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ:VERA opened at $48.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.51 and a beta of 1.03. Vera Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $12.28 and a 1 year high of $51.61. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $43.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $39.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 13.76 and a current ratio of 13.76.

Vera Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VERA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.85) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by ($0.21). As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vera Therapeutics will post -2.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vera Therapeutics news, Director Beth C. Seidenberg sold 15,000 shares of Vera Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.03, for a total value of $720,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 131,553 shares in the company, valued at $6,318,490.59. The trade was a 10.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Marshall Fordyce sold 15,625 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.50, for a total transaction of $585,937.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 307,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,548,950. The trade was a 4.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 89,927 shares of company stock valued at $3,800,796. Company insiders own 21.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vera Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Vera Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $227,027,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD purchased a new position in shares of Vera Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $103,189,000. Samlyn Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vera Therapeutics by 90.8% during the 2nd quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC now owns 1,231,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,571,000 after acquiring an additional 586,410 shares in the last quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Vera Therapeutics by 130.6% during the 2nd quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,005,723 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,387,000 after purchasing an additional 569,590 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Vera Therapeutics by 31.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,148,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,653,000 after purchasing an additional 515,106 shares in the last quarter. 99.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Vera Therapeutics

Vera Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biotechnology company, focuses on developing and commercializing treatments for patients with serious immunological diseases. Its lead product candidate is atacicept, a fusion protein self-administered as a subcutaneous injection that is in Phase III clinical trial for patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy; and for treatment of lupus nephritis that is in Phase II clinical trial.