Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Shares Gap Up – What’s Next?

Shares of Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $27.16, but opened at $30.01. Maplight Therapeutics shares last traded at $30.2160, with a volume of 29,105 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on MPLT. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Lifesci Capital upgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Maplight Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.78.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $28.69 and a 200-day moving average of $21.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion and a P/E ratio of -0.71.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). On average, research analysts forecast that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -5.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James Woodruff Lillie sold 24,811 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total value of $713,564.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 243,450 shares in the company, valued at $7,001,622. The trade was a 9.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Erin Pennock Foff sold 24,052 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total transaction of $691,735.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 350,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,080,293.72. The trade was a 6.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 495,244 shares of company stock worth $14,079,461 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at $1,113,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth $7,622,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Maplight Therapeutics by 10.1% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 39,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $802,000 after acquiring an additional 3,608 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $49,168,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $228,000.

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.