HC Wainwright Reaffirms Buy Rating for Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC)

Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at HC Wainwright in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $7.00 price objective on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 326.83% from the stock’s current price. HC Wainwright also issued estimates for Alector’s FY2029 earnings at ($0.72) EPS.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on ALEC. BTIG Research reduced their price objective on Alector from $16.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Alector from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $3.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Mizuho downgraded Alector from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $9.00 to $2.50 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Bank of America downgraded Alector from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $9.00 to $1.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Alector from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $4.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.75.

Alector Price Performance

NASDAQ ALEC opened at $1.64 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $160.61 million, a PE ratio of -0.96 and a beta of 0.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $1.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.53. Alector has a 1-year low of $1.55 and a 1-year high of $7.57.

Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.61) by $0.59. Alector had a negative return on equity of 108.77% and a negative net margin of 257.54%. The business had revenue of $54.24 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.41 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Alector will post -1.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alector

In other Alector news, insider Sara Kenkare-Mitra sold 26,500 shares of Alector stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.52, for a total value of $66,780.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 565,215 shares in the company, valued at $1,424,341.80. The trade was a 4.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Arnon Rosenthal sold 52,172 shares of Alector stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.52, for a total value of $131,473.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,507,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,317,826.48. The trade was a 2.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 95,161 shares of company stock worth $239,806 over the last quarter. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alector

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALEC. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alector in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Tema Etfs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alector in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of Alector by 71.1% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 14,670 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 6,096 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alector in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Alector in the third quarter valued at $40,000. 85.83% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Alector

Alector, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for the treatment of neurodegeneration diseases. Its products include AL001, an immune activity in the brain with genetic links to multiple neurodegenerative disorders, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diseases; and AL101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.