Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms “Neutral” Rating for Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX)

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut Pliant Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $10.00 target price on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday. Leerink Partners lowered Pliant Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $33.00 to $2.00 in a research report on Monday. HC Wainwright cut Pliant Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Pliant Therapeutics from $4.00 to $3.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.31.

Pliant Therapeutics Trading Up 12.6 %

Shares of PLRX stock opened at $1.52 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.50 million, a P/E ratio of -0.46 and a beta of 1.03. Pliant Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $1.26 and a fifty-two week high of $16.52. The company has a quick ratio of 10.26, a current ratio of 10.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 3rd. The company reported ($0.82) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.99) by $0.17. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pliant Therapeutics will post -3.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Pliant Therapeutics

In other Pliant Therapeutics news, insider Hans Hull sold 15,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total value of $178,483.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 211,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,369,449.60. This represents a 7.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Mike Ouimette sold 13,270 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total value of $148,624.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 80,774 shares in the company, valued at $904,668.80. This represents a 14.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 91,855 shares of company stock valued at $1,026,628 over the last three months. 6.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Pliant Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Pliant Therapeutics by 1,299.0% during the fourth quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC now owns 5,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 5,196 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $99,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $108,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in Pliant Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $112,000. Institutional investors own 97.30% of the company’s stock.

Pliant Therapeutics Company Profile

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.