Epizyme (EPZM) - Investment Analysts’ Recent Ratings Updates

Several brokerages have updated their recommendations and price targets on shares of Epizyme (NASDAQ: EPZM) in the last few weeks:

• 7/19/2017 – Epizyme was downgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating.
• 7/18/2017 – Epizyme was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating. They now have a $16.00 price target on the stock. According to Zacks, “Epizyme's efforts on developing its lead candidate, tazemetostat, for a number of hematological malignancies and genetically defined solid tumors are impressive. Additionally, its attempts to evaluate tazemetostat in combination with anti-PD 1 or PDL-1 agent are also encouraging. We believe, the company’s collaboration agreement with Celgene for small-molecule HMT inhibitors including pinometostat is a big positive. Epizyme’s share price has also outperformed the Zacks classified Medical/Biomedical Genetics industry year to date. However, with no approved product in its portfolio, Epizyme is highly dependent on its collaboration partners for top-line growth. Loss estimates have narrowed mostly stable lately ahead of the Q2 results. Epizyme has a positive record of earnings surprises in the recent quarters.”
• 7/17/2017 – Epizyme was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating. According to Zacks, “Epizyme's efforts on developing its lead candidate, tazemetostat, for a number of hematological malignancies and genetically defined solid tumors are impressive. Additionally, its attempts to evaluate tazemetostat in combination with anti-PD 1 or PDL-1 agent are also encouraging. We believe, the company’s collaboration agreement with Celgene for small-molecule HMT inhibitors including pinometostat is a big positive. Epizyme’s share price has also outperformed the Zacks classified Medical/Biomedical Genetics industry year to date. However, with no approved product in its portfolio, Epizyme is highly dependent on its collaboration partners for top-line growth.”
• 7/12/2017 – Epizyme was upgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating. They now have a $16.00 price target on the stock. According to Zacks, “Epizyme's efforts on developing its lead candidate, tazemetostat, for a number of hematological malignancies and genetically defined solid tumors are impressive. Additionally, its attempts to evaluate tazemetostat in combination with anti-PD 1 or PDL-1 agent are also encouraging. We believe, the company’s collaboration agreement with Celgene for small-molecule HMT inhibitors including pinometostat is a big positive. Epizyme’s share price has also outperformed the Zacks classified Medical/Biomedical Genetics industry year to date. However, with no approved product in its portfolio, Epizyme is highly dependent on its collaboration partners for top-line growth.”
• 6/24/2017 – Epizyme was upgraded by analysts at ValuEngine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating.
• 6/21/2017 – Epizyme had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Cann. They now have a $26.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, “Epizyme, Inc. announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug designation to Tazemetostat, for the treatment of patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS). Management reported they are looking forward to continued engagement with FDA on Tazemetostat for rapid development in both solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Orphan Drug status for Tazemetostat supports our expectation that Epizyme could launch it in 2018. While the company has only guided to a goal of filing Tazemetostat with FDA by early 2018, we anticipate the drug could be approved and launched in the same year, due to the high unmet need in the settings where it is being developed: rare hematologic and solid tumor cancers.””
• 6/16/2017 – Epizyme had its price target raised by analysts at Citigroup Inc. from $20.00 to $22.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 6/16/2017 – Epizyme had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Leerink Swann. They now have a $31.00 price target on the stock.
• 6/14/2017 – Epizyme was given a new $26.00 price target on by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc.. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 6/12/2017 – Epizyme was given a new $20.00 price target on by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 6/7/2017 – Epizyme had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at HC Wainwright. They now have a $25.00 price target on the stock.
• 6/7/2017 – Epizyme had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Cowen and Company. They wrote, “Abstracts from ICML further support BGB-3111’s efficacy profile as being superior.””
• 6/5/2017 – Epizyme was given a new $26.00 price target on by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings, Inc.. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock.
• 6/3/2017 – Epizyme was downgraded by analysts at ValuEngine from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating.
• 5/22/2017 – Epizyme was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating. According to Zacks, “Epizyme reported narrower-than-expected loss in the first quarter of 2017. In fact, the company’s efforts on developing its lead candidate, tazemetostat, for a number of hematological malignancies and genetically defined solid tumors are impressive. Additionally, its attempts to evaluate tazemetostat in combination with anti-PD 1 or PDL-1 agent are also encouraging. We believe, the company’s collaboration agreement with Celgene for small-molecule HMT inhibitors including pinometostat is a big positive. Epizyme’s share price has also outperformed the Zacks classified Medical/Biomedical Genetics industry year to date. However, with no approved product in its portfolio, Epizyme is highly dependent on its collaboration partners for top-line growth. Moreover, most of its candidates are in early stages of development and hence are several years away from commercialization.”

Epizyme, Inc. (NASDAQ EPZM) traded down 3.65% during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $13.20. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 166,467 shares. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $13.91 and its 200 day moving average is $14.27. Epizyme, Inc. has a one year low of $7.02 and a one year high of $18.50. The firm’s market cap is $770.33 million.

Epizyme (NASDAQ:EPZM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.63) by $0.07. Epizyme had a negative return on equity of 55.41% and a negative net margin of 1,376.33%. On average, analysts anticipate that Epizyme, Inc. will post ($2.42) EPS for the current year.

In other Epizyme news, CFO Andrew E. Singer sold 3,024 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.50, for a total transaction of $46,872.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 40,529 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $628,199.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Peter Tai-Ching Ho sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.11, for a total value of $241,650.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 22,228 shares in the company, valued at approximately $358,093.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 40,524 shares of company stock worth $632,397. Corporate insiders own 25.20% of the company’s stock.

Epizyme, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company discovers, develops and plans to commercialize epigenetic therapies for cancer patients. The Company is engaged in the discovery and development of novel epigenetic therapies for cancer patients. The Company develops small molecule inhibitors of a class of enzymes known as histone methyltransferases (HMTs).