Insider Selling: Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) General Counsel Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) General Counsel David Watson sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.49, for a total value of $122,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 103,730 shares in the company, valued at $2,540,347.70. This represents a 4.60% 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 the SEC website.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of APLS traded down $0.72 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $24.48. 3,858,177 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,374,200. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $23.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.10 billion, a PE ratio of 78.97 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 3.10 and a current ratio of 3.54. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.10 and a 1-year high of $35.57.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.64. The firm had revenue of $458.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $364.58 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 4.43% and a return on equity of 18.94%. Apellis Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was up 133.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.46) EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,130,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,551,000 after acquiring an additional 84,331 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 641,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,027,000 after purchasing an additional 37,741 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter worth approximately $10,765,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 537.0% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 38,903 shares of the company’s stock worth $851,000 after purchasing an additional 32,796 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at approximately $344,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on APLS. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $24.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $32.00 price target on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright reduced their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $57.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 31st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Apellis Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.06.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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).