Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Boosts Stake in Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) by 15.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 33,509 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,385 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned 0.06% of Protagonist Therapeutics worth $1,293,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PTGX. FNY Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd purchased a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth $69,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in Protagonist Therapeutics by 54.4% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Protagonist Therapeutics by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $95,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares during the period. Finally, Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Protagonist Therapeutics by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,133 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Protagonist Therapeutics news, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 5,359 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.18, for a total value of $204,606.62. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 540,260 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,627,126.80. This represents a 0.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PTGX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $43.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 target price on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, HC Wainwright raised their price target on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Protagonist Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.44.

Protagonist Therapeutics Trading Up 3.4 %

Shares of PTGX opened at $37.59 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $37.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.13 and a beta of 2.22. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.22 and a 1-year high of $48.89.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 21st. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $2.07. The firm had revenue of $170.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $56.65 million. Protagonist Therapeutics had a net margin of 52.76% and a return on equity of 34.68%. On average, research analysts forecast that Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Protagonist Therapeutics Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops peptide-based drugs for hematology and blood disorders, and inflammatory and immunomodulatory diseases. It is developing Rusfertide (PTG-300), an injectable hepcidin mimetic that completed phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of polycythemia vera and other blood disorders; and JNJ-2113, an orally delivered investigational drug to block biological pathways that completed phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis; and PN-943, an orally delivered, gut-restricted alpha 4 beta 7 specific integrin antagonist completed a phase 2 clinical trials in patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.