Short Interest in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) Decreases By 12.7%

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 960,700 shares, a decrease of 12.7% from the July 15th total of 1,100,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 138,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.9 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Matthew E. Korenberg sold 18,245 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.50, for a total value of $1,797,132.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 68,368 shares in the company, valued at $6,734,248. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Ligand Pharmaceuticals news, CEO Todd C. Davis bought 2,500 shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $97.39 per share, for a total transaction of $243,475.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 123,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,979,943.90. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Matthew E. Korenberg sold 18,245 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.50, for a total transaction of $1,797,132.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 68,368 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,734,248. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LGND. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 21.7% in the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 758 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $67,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on LGND. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $144.00 price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $131.00.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of LGND stock opened at $102.21 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a PE ratio of 19.77 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50-day moving average of $92.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $82.60. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $49.24 and a 1-year high of $112.13.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.34. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 79.30% and a return on equity of 8.52%. The company had revenue of $41.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.10 earnings per share. Ligand Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 57.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ligand Pharmaceuticals will post 3.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development and licensing of biopharmaceutical assets worldwide. Its commercial programs include Kyprolis and Evomela, which are used to treat multiple myeloma; Rylaze, a recombinant erwinia asparaginase for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoblastic lymphoma in adult and pediatric patients; Filspari, a dual endothelin and angiotensin II receptor antagonist in development for rare kidney diseases and non-immunosuppressive treatment indicated for immunoglobulin A nephropathy; Teriparatide injection product for osteoporosis; Vaxneuvance for the prevention of invasive disease caused by streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes; and Pneumosil, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to help fight against pneumococcal pneumonia among children.