Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SPRO) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SPRO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Sunday morning.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on SPRO. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Spero Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research cut Spero Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Spero Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.00.

Spero Therapeutics Price Performance

Spero Therapeutics stock opened at $2.32 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $130.71 million, a P/E ratio of -2.94 and a beta of 1.48. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $2.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.34. Spero Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $0.51 and a 1 year high of $3.22.

Spero Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SPRO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $5.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.00 million. Spero Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 125.91% and a negative net margin of 108.11%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Spero Therapeutics will post -1.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Spero Therapeutics

In related news, insider Esther Rajavelu sold 40,270 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.37, for a total transaction of $95,439.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 869,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,060,596.50. This represents a 4.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Anson Funds Management LP boosted its stake in Spero Therapeutics by 98.9% in the 1st quarter. Anson Funds Management LP now owns 7,638,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,500,000 after purchasing an additional 3,798,932 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Spero Therapeutics by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,989,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,741,000 after acquiring an additional 39,474 shares during the period. Ionic Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Spero Therapeutics by 39.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ionic Capital Management LLC now owns 208,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $392,000 after acquiring an additional 58,725 shares during the last quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Spero Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth about $455,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Spero Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $283,000. 25.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Spero Therapeutics Company Profile

Spero Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on identifying, developing, and commercializing novel treatments for multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections and rare diseases in the United States. The company’s product candidates include tebipenem pivoxil hydrobromide (HBr), an oral carbapenem-class antibiotic to treat complicated urinary tract infections, including pyelonephritis for adults; SPR206, an intravenous-administered antibiotic against MDR Gram-negative pathogens comprising carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales (CRE), acinetobacter baumannii, and pseudomonas aeruginosa, as well as negative bacterial infections in the hospital setting; and SPR720, a novel oral antibiotic agent for the treatment of non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease.