Scotiabank Initiates Coverage on Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB)

Equities research analysts at Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB) in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set a “sector outperform” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Scotiabank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 51.02% from the company’s current price.

ZLAB has been the subject of a number of other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Zai Lab to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $36.10 price target (up from $29.00) on shares of Zai Lab in a research report on Monday, March 3rd.

Zai Lab Trading Up 2.9 %

NASDAQ:ZLAB opened at $36.42 on Friday. Zai Lab has a 12 month low of $13.48 and a 12 month high of $37.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $28.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.99 billion, a P/E ratio of -13.15 and a beta of 1.08.

Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.80) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.61) by ($0.19). Zai Lab had a negative return on equity of 36.97% and a negative net margin of 76.14%. The firm had revenue of $109.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $110.15 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Zai Lab will post -2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Zai Lab news, CEO Ying Du sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.44, for a total transaction of $1,622,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 494,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,029,155.48. This trade represents a 9.19 % 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, insider Rafael Amado sold 7,583 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.28, for a total value of $199,281.24. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $889,157.52. This represents a 18.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 122,127 shares of company stock valued at $4,024,442 over the last quarter. 13.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ZLAB. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Zai Lab by 749.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,475,505 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,403,000 after buying an additional 4,830,646 shares during the period. RTW Investments LP purchased a new position in Zai Lab in the fourth quarter valued at $65,714,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Zai Lab by 34.2% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 8,760,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,488,000 after purchasing an additional 2,232,507 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Zai Lab in the fourth quarter valued at $46,172,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Zai Lab by 18.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,436,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $203,660,000 after purchasing an additional 1,312,115 shares during the period. 41.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Zai Lab

Zai Lab Limited develops and commercializes therapies to treat oncology, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, and neuroscience. Its commercial products include Zejula, an orally administered poly polymerase 1/2 inhibitor; Optune, a cancer therapy that uses electric fields tuned to specific frequencies to kill tumor cells; NUZYRA for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, and community acquired bacterial pneumonia; Qinlock to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and VYVGART, a human IgG1 antibody fragment for myesthenia gravis.