Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) Receives $13.31 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $13.31.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PLRX. Leerink Partners cut Pliant Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $33.00 to $2.00 in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Leerink Partnrs cut Pliant Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Pliant Therapeutics from $4.00 to $3.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut Pliant Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd.

Pliant Therapeutics Price Performance

Pliant Therapeutics stock opened at $1.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 10.26 and a quick ratio of 10.26. The company has a market capitalization of $87.57 million, a PE ratio of -0.43 and a beta of 1.18. Pliant Therapeutics has a one year low of $1.26 and a one year high of $16.52. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.39.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 3rd. The company reported ($0.82) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.99) by $0.17. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Pliant Therapeutics will post -3.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Mike Ouimette sold 10,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.99, for a total value of $112,427.70. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 70,544 shares in the company, valued at $775,278.56. This trade represents a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Bernard Coulie sold 52,419 shares of Pliant Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total value of $587,092.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 430,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,821,790.40. This represents a 10.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 91,855 shares of company stock valued at $1,026,628. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in Pliant Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $112,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,402,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,725,000 after purchasing an additional 26,610 shares in the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 265.2% in the third quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 170,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,908,000 after purchasing an additional 123,600 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 2.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,318,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,781,000 after purchasing an additional 31,221 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 27.2% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 30,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $405,000 after purchasing an additional 6,579 shares in the last quarter. 97.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pliant Therapeutics Company Profile

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.