Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DNLI) Now Covered by Analysts at William Blair

William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DNLI) in a report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating on the stock.

DNLI has been the subject of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Denali Therapeutics from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of Denali Therapeutics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Denali Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Denali Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Denali Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $40.40.

Denali Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of DNLI opened at $21.26 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.06 billion, a PE ratio of -7.70 and a beta of 1.35. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $24.62 and a 200-day moving average of $24.85. Denali Therapeutics has a one year low of $14.56 and a one year high of $33.33.

Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DNLI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.63) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.03). During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.72) EPS. Analysts expect that Denali Therapeutics will post -2.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Vicki L. Sato sold 3,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.91, for a total value of $64,402.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 107,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,257,778.16. This represents a 2.77 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan J. Watts sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.69, for a total transaction of $1,107,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 235,807 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,529,495.83. This represents a 14.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 59,658 shares of company stock valued at $1,667,943. 7.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Denali Therapeutics

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Denali Therapeutics by 9.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,727,450 shares of the company’s stock worth $312,491,000 after purchasing an additional 903,683 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Denali Therapeutics by 3,234.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,831,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,128,000 after acquiring an additional 7,596,508 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Denali Therapeutics by 63.2% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,749,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,451,770 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Denali Therapeutics by 12.7% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,418,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,165,000 after acquiring an additional 272,454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Denali Therapeutics by 6.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,417,472 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,913,000 after acquiring an additional 84,522 shares in the last quarter. 92.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Denali Therapeutics Company Profile

Denali Therapeutics Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops a portfolio of product candidates engineered to cross the blood-brain barrier for neurodegenerative diseases and lysosomal storage diseases in the United States. The company’s transport vehicle (TV)-enabled programs include DNL310 ETV, an IDS enzyme replacement therapy program for MPS II; TAK-594/DNL593 which is in Phase 1/II for frontotemporal dementia-granulin; DNL126 program for MPS IIIA; and DNL622 for MPS I, as well as other preclinical programs that target amyloid beta and HER2.