Verona Pharma’s (VRNA) Buy Rating Reiterated at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reiterated their buy rating on shares of Verona Pharma (NASDAQ:VRNA) in a report issued on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. HC Wainwright currently has a $32.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright also issued estimates for Verona Pharma’s Q3 2023 earnings at ($0.24) EPS, Q2 2024 earnings at ($0.32) EPS and FY2024 earnings at ($1.20) EPS.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on VRNA. Wedbush reissued an outperform rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Verona Pharma in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a buy rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of Verona Pharma in a research report on Friday, September 1st. 500.com restated a reiterates rating on shares of Verona Pharma in a research report on Wednesday, June 28th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on Verona Pharma from $28.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $32.60.

Verona Pharma Trading Down 0.8 %

VRNA stock opened at $18.15 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $19.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.52. Verona Pharma has a fifty-two week low of $8.41 and a fifty-two week high of $26.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.20 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 26.29 and a quick ratio of 26.29.

Verona Pharma (NASDAQ:VRNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.16. Analysts expect that Verona Pharma will post -0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verona Pharma

In other news, General Counsel Claire Poll sold 18,608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.68, for a total transaction of $49,869.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 1,968,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,276,338.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO David Zaccardelli sold 150,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.50, for a total transaction of $375,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 16,440,416 shares in the company, valued at $41,101,040. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Claire Poll sold 18,608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.68, for a total value of $49,869.44. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 1,968,783 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,276,338.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 568,200 shares of company stock valued at $1,460,799. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verona Pharma

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. acquired a new stake in Verona Pharma during the first quarter worth approximately $1,841,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Verona Pharma in the 2nd quarter valued at $118,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verona Pharma in the 2nd quarter valued at $49,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Verona Pharma during the 3rd quarter worth $165,000. Finally, Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in Verona Pharma during the 3rd quarter worth $438,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.89% of the company’s stock.

About Verona Pharma

Verona Pharma plc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of respiratory diseases with unmet medical needs. The company's product candidate is ensifentrine, an inhaled and dual inhibitor of the phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3 and PDE4 enzymes that acts as both a bronchodilator and an anti-inflammatory agent in a single compound, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and cystic fibrosis.