Fred Alger Management LLC Acquires 166,906 Shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S $ASND

Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) by 4,398.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 170,701 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 166,906 shares during the quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC owned approximately 0.28% of Ascendis Pharma A/S worth $33,937,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 2.6% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 544,606 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $108,274,000 after buying an additional 13,797 shares during the period. Sector Gamma AS lifted its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 43.1% during the third quarter. Sector Gamma AS now owns 24,327 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,836,000 after buying an additional 7,327 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 2,722.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 793,677 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $157,791,000 after buying an additional 765,561 shares during the period. Braun Stacey Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Ascendis Pharma A/S during the third quarter worth $18,678,000. Finally, Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ascendis Pharma A/S during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,282,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ASND. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $246.00 to $262.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Bank of America restated a “buy” rating and set a $262.00 price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Barclays assumed coverage on Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $342.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus set a $332.00 target price on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S from $322.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.88.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of ASND opened at $225.98 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $14.01 billion, a PE ratio of -51.36 and a beta of 0.43. Ascendis Pharma A/S has a 12 month low of $124.06 and a 12 month high of $248.60. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $224.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.33.

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by ($0.58). The company had revenue of $290.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $285.35 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ascendis Pharma A/S will post -4.34 EPS for the current year.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Company Profile

Ascendis Pharma A/S is a Denmark‐based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies for rare endocrine diseases. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Hellerup, the company leverages its proprietary TransCon drug delivery platform to create long‐acting prodrugs designed to improve safety, efficacy and patient convenience. Ascendis Pharma maintains research and development operations in Europe and the United States, with clinical studies spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

The company’s lead product, lonapegsomatropin (Skytrofa®), is a once‐weekly growth hormone therapy approved by the U.S.