Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Investment analysts at StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND – Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday. The firm set a “sell” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

ASND has been the topic of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $169.00 to $177.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 3rd. Credit Suisse Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a report on Friday, February 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $148.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $160.50.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ ASND opened at $108.14 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 4.63, a current ratio of 5.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Ascendis Pharma A/S has a twelve month low of $61.58 and a twelve month high of $134.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.18 billion, a PE ratio of -9.97 and a beta of 0.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $115.40 and its 200 day moving average is $113.08.

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The biotechnology company reported ($3.78) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.50) by ($1.28). Ascendis Pharma A/S had a negative net margin of 1,149.60% and a negative return on equity of 114.11%. The firm had revenue of $23.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.31 million. Research analysts forecast that Ascendis Pharma A/S will post -11.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ASND. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 3,024.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,754,458 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $205,903,000 after purchasing an additional 1,698,302 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 39.2% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,828,267 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $345,417,000 after purchasing an additional 796,087 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 14.6% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,665,579 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $547,552,000 after acquiring an additional 594,855 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 1,197.7% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 384,200 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $39,672,000 after acquiring an additional 419,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 41.8% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,184,356 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $122,296,000 after acquiring an additional 349,157 shares during the last quarter.

About Ascendis Pharma A/S

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Ascendis Pharma A/S is a biopharmaceutical company, which engages in the development of drug candidates. It specializes on its TransCon technologies to create prodrugs that provide for the predictable and sustained release of an unmodified parent drug. The company was founded by Jan Moller Mikkelsen, Dirk Vetter, and Harald Rau in September 2006 and is headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark.