Investors Buy Large Volume of Veru Call Options (NASDAQ:VERU)

Veru Inc. (NASDAQ:VERU) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders bought 9,142 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 206% compared to the average daily volume of 2,983 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Michael L. Rankowitz acquired 95,279 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $0.55 per share, with a total value of $52,403.45. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 195,279 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $107,403.45. This represents a 95.28 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 14.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. MPM Bioimpact LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Veru during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,788,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Veru by 181.6% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 1,120,586 shares of the company’s stock valued at $729,000 after buying an additional 722,644 shares during the last quarter. PVG Asset Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Veru by 64.4% during the fourth quarter. PVG Asset Management Corp now owns 1,047,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $681,000 after buying an additional 410,340 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Veru by 337.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 255,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 197,307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its position in shares of Veru by 309.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 184,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $142,000 after buying an additional 139,617 shares during the last quarter. 47.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $3.00 price objective on shares of Veru in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd.

Veru Price Performance

Shares of Veru stock opened at $0.48 on Wednesday. Veru has a 1 year low of $0.45 and a 1 year high of $1.92. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $0.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $0.71. The stock has a market cap of $70.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.85 and a beta of -0.46.

Veru (NASDAQ:VERU) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.01. Veru had a negative net margin of 223.85% and a negative return on equity of 112.75%. On average, equities analysts expect that Veru will post -0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

About Veru

Veru Inc, a late clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing medicines for treatment of metabolic diseases, oncology, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Its marketed products comprise FC2 female condom for the dual protection against unplanned pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections.