Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT)

Applied Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLT) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 10,681 call options on the company. This is an increase of 2,011% compared to the average daily volume of 506 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Shoshana Shendelman sold 119,591 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.93, for a total transaction of $709,174.63. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,690,839 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,816,675.27. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 8.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APLT. Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth $54,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Applied Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at $54,000. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $81,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Applied Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at $87,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Applied Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth about $110,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.31% of the company’s stock.

Applied Therapeutics Trading Up 66.7 %

Shares of APLT stock traded up $3.10 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $7.75. The stock had a trading volume of 42,801,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,676,918. Applied Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $1.79 and a 52-week high of $9.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $885.57 million, a PE ratio of -4.01 and a beta of 2.03. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $5.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.29.

Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.13) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $0.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.00 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Therapeutics will post -0.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on APLT shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of Applied Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. William Blair upgraded Applied Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Applied Therapeutics from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.25.

About Applied Therapeutics

Applied Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of a pipeline of novel product candidates against validated molecular targets in indications of high unmet medical need in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is AT-007 (also called govorestat) that has completed phase 3 for the treatment of galactosemia in healthy volunteers and adults, in pediatric clinical study for the treatment of galactosemia in kids, for treating enzyme sorbitol dehydrogenase, and for the treatment of phosphomannomutase enzyme-CDG.