Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ (APLS) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reissued their buy rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $57.00 target price on the stock.

APLS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $63.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $43.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Apellis Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.71.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ:APLS opened at $24.06 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.85 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50-day moving average of $29.88 and a 200-day moving average of $31.48. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $23.81 and a 52 week high of $66.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 3.73 and a current ratio of 4.36.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The company reported ($0.29) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.08. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 34.97% and a negative return on equity of 103.11%. The firm had revenue of $212.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.92 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.73) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 45.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Apellis Pharmaceuticals

In related news, insider Caroline Baumal sold 2,816 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.81, for a total value of $95,208.96. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 55,560 shares in the company, valued at $1,878,483.60. This represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Cedric Francois sold 2,824 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.52, for a total transaction of $83,364.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 415,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,271,316.40. The trade was a 0.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 60,365 shares of company stock worth $1,810,479 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in APLS. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC now owns 12,222,222 shares of the company’s stock worth $390,011,000 after purchasing an additional 1,111,111 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,046,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $320,569,000 after buying an additional 230,450 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 23.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,884,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,036,000 after buying an additional 735,160 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP grew its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 410.8% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 3,125,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,130,000 after buying an additional 2,513,383 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 51.6% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,760,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,084,000 after acquiring an additional 939,289 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.29% of the company’s stock.

About Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA).