Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) Downgraded by BidaskClub to “Sell”
Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) was downgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday, BidAskClub reports.
Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on LGND. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $229.00 price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Benchmark raised their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $135.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $134.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Roth Capital raised their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $170.00.
Shares of NASDAQ:LGND opened at $103.25 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of -74.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.62. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $57.24 and a 1 year high of $127.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 29.51 and a quick ratio of 29.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $116.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $102.71.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The biotechnology company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $41.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.96 million. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a positive return on equity of 4.41% and a negative net margin of 19.51%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 65.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ligand Pharmaceuticals will post 2.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.
In other news, SVP Charles S. Berkman sold 11,146 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.59, for a total transaction of $1,321,804.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 40,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,847,603.43. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Matthew W. Foehr sold 7,225 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.88, for a total transaction of $815,558.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 155,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,543,019.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,449 shares of company stock valued at $2,146,012 over the last quarter. 8.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LGND. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth about $450,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 19.3% in the first quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 5,729 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $417,000 after acquiring an additional 925 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 259,823 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $18,894,000 after acquiring an additional 9,917 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at approximately $284,000. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 25.3% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 3,883 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $282,000 after acquiring an additional 785 shares in the last quarter.
About Ligand Pharmaceuticals
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies to discover and develop medicines worldwide. Its commercial programs include Promacta, an oral medicine that increases the number of platelets in the blood; Kyprolis and Evomela, which are used to treat multiple myeloma; Baxdela, a captisol-enabled delafloxacin-IV for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections; Nexterone, a captisol-enabled formulation of amiodarone; Noxafil-IV, a captisol-enabled formulation of posaconazole for IV use; Carnexiv, which is indicated as replacement therapy for oral carbamazepine formulations; bazedoxifene for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis; Aziyo portfolio of commercial pericardial repair and CanGaroo envelope extracellular matrix products; Exemptia for autoimmune diseases; Vivitra for breast cancer; and Bryxta for non-small cell lung cancer.
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Published at Sat, 29 Aug 2020 13:41:15 +0000