Esperion Therapeutics Stock Is Diving: What's Going On?

Esperion Therapeutics Inc ESPR shares are trading lower Monday after the company published new data on its treatment aimed at reducing cardiovascular risk.

What Happened: Esperion announced full results from its CLEAR Outcomes study of nearly 14,000 patients with or at risk for cardiovascular disease who were unable to maximize or tolerate a statin.

The study showed that NEXLETOL significantly reduced the risk of hard MACE-4 and MACE-3 by 13% and 15%, respectively, and significantly reduced the risk of heart attack and coronary revascularization by 23% and 19%, respectively.

"These results are practice changing and exceed our expectations. We expect applicable treatment guidelines to be updated quickly which will then lead to a paradigm shift in patient care," said Sheldon Koenig, president and CEO of Esperion.

Esperion said it believes that the company remains on track to submit regulatory filings to the FDA and EMA in the first half of 2023. The company expects full-year 2023 operating expenses to be approximately $225 million to $245 million.

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Analyst Assessment: Several analysts came out with updates after the company released the new data.

• HC Wainwright & Co. analyst Joseph Pantginis reiterated Esperion with a Buy and maintained a $22 price target.
• Needham analyst Serge Belanger maintained Esperion with a Buy and raised the price target from $12 to $16.
• JMP Securities analyst Roy Buchanan reiterated Esperion with a Market Outperform and maintained a $15 price target.

ESPR Price Action: Esperion shares are down 27.3% at $4.61 at time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay.