HC Wainwright Reaffirms “Neutral” Rating for Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS)

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at HC Wainwright in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $46.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price target indicates a potential upside of 28.17% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Alkermes from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Alkermes in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Alkermes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $48.00 to $43.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.25.

Alkermes Stock Performance

NASDAQ ALKS opened at $35.89 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.03, a current ratio of 3.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Alkermes has a 52-week low of $22.90 and a 52-week high of $36.25. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $30.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.73. The firm has a market cap of $5.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.49.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.11. Alkermes had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 22.15%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Alkermes will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Cato T. Laurencin sold 2,691 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.85, for a total transaction of $85,708.35. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,013 shares in the company, valued at $732,964.05. This trade represents a 10.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Craig C. Hopkinson sold 144,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total transaction of $5,131,207.07. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 57,875 shares in the company, valued at $2,056,298.75. This represents a 71.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 323,608 shares of company stock worth $10,854,725 over the last quarter. 4.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Centiva Capital LP acquired a new position in Alkermes in the third quarter worth approximately $367,000. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alkermes by 190.3% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 36,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,021,000 after buying an additional 23,921 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Alkermes by 128.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 56,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,575,000 after buying an additional 31,687 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Alkermes by 254.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 32,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $944,000 after buying an additional 23,541 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Alkermes by 74.7% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 149,493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,184,000 after buying an additional 63,939 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

About Alkermes

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.