Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $2.32 Million in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 83,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,316,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ALKS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Alkermes by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,667,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $522,870,000 after buying an additional 72,797 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Alkermes by 1.2% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,621,253 shares of the company’s stock worth $468,553,000 after acquiring an additional 197,079 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Alkermes by 52.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,746,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $329,028,000 after purchasing an additional 4,055,926 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 9.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,467,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,413,000 after buying an additional 556,097 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Alkermes by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,868,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,077,000 after acquiring an additional 57,068 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of Alkermes in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group cut Alkermes from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $25.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of Alkermes in a research note on Monday, April 1st. TheStreet upgraded shares of Alkermes from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.25.

Alkermes Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:ALKS opened at $23.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.48 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.86 and a quick ratio of 2.50. Alkermes plc has a one year low of $22.01 and a one year high of $33.71. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.08.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.29). The company had revenue of $377.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.78 million. Alkermes had a return on equity of 16.10% and a net margin of 21.39%. The company’s revenue was up 23.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.02) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Alkermes plc will post 2.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alkermes declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, February 15th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 8.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Alkermes

In related news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 10,417 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.10, for a total value of $292,717.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 65,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,099.10. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 4.76% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Alkermes

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.