Jefferies Financial Group Downgrades ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ:EPIX) to Hold

ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ:EPIX) (TSE:EPI) was downgraded by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler downgraded ESSA Pharma from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $15.00 to $2.00 in a report on Monday. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of ESSA Pharma from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday.

ESSA Pharma Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EPIX opened at $1.70 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $5.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.43 million, a P/E ratio of -2.74 and a beta of 1.84. ESSA Pharma has a 1 year low of $1.40 and a 1 year high of $11.67.

ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ:EPIX) (TSE:EPI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.10. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that ESSA Pharma will post -0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Growth N. V. Biotech sold 7,879,583 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.53, for a total transaction of $12,055,761.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,883,053 shares of company stock valued at $12,076,665. Insiders own 14.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in ESSA Pharma stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of ESSA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX) (TSE:EPI) by 7.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,175,242 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 85,760 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned 2.66% of ESSA Pharma worth $9,978,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 75.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ESSA Pharma

ESSA Pharma Inc, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, focuses the development of small molecule drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer. The company’s lead candidate EPI-7386, an androgen receptor based resistance mechanisms that develop in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.