Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Given “Buy” Rating at HC Wainwright

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $92.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price target points to a potential upside of 77.64% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on APLS. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $87.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $75.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apellis Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.60.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 7.1 %

NASDAQ:APLS opened at $51.79 on Monday. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $19.83 and a 1 year high of $94.75. The business has a fifty day moving average of $61.56 and a 200-day moving average of $56.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a current ratio of 3.10. The stock has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.56 and a beta of 0.88.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.73) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.73). The company had revenue of $146.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $143.34 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 133.34% and a negative return on equity of 178.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 545.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.50) EPS. Equities analysts predict that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO James George Chopas sold 864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.81, for a total value of $57,723.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 40,128 shares in the company, valued at $2,680,951.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Apellis Pharmaceuticals news, CAO James George Chopas sold 864 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.81, for a total value of $57,723.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 40,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,680,951.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Pascal Deschatelets sold 69,107 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.17, for a total transaction of $3,743,526.19. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,115,983 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $60,452,799.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 422,279 shares of company stock valued at $26,174,364 in the last three months. Company insiders own 7.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apellis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wynnefield Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $380,000. General American Investors Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,712,000. Profund Advisors LLC grew its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 114.5% in the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 35,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,337,000 after acquiring an additional 18,766 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 6.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 879,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,451,000 after acquiring an additional 50,835 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 109.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,145,004 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121,497 shares in the last quarter. 96.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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).