Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $28.34, but opened at $30.10. Maplight Therapeutics shares last traded at $29.7950, with a volume of 1,941 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MPLT has been the topic of several research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Maplight Therapeutics from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Craig Hallum assumed coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, May 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Maplight Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $37.78.

Maplight Therapeutics Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.23 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.70. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.89.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). As a group, equities analysts forecast that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -5.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Maplight Therapeutics news, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total value of $3,214,809.65. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,394,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,905,415.86. This trade represents a 7.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Erin Pennock Foff sold 4,438 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.54, for a total value of $126,660.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 346,059 shares in the company, valued at $9,876,523.86. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 495,244 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,461 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MPLT. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $53,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $70,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $93,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $172,000. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $205,000.

About Maplight Therapeutics

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.