Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $130.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research lowered Protagonist Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, May 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $135.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised Protagonist Therapeutics from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Citizens Jmp upped their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $120.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.53.

Protagonist Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of PTGX stock opened at $154.32 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.99 billion, a PE ratio of 149.83 and a beta of 1.78. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $134.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $110.35. Protagonist Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $54.50 and a 52 week high of $160.81.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.02. Protagonist Therapeutics had a net margin of 29.40% and a return on equity of 12.03%. The firm had revenue of $213.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.03 million. Protagonist Therapeutics’s revenue for the quarter was up 3746.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 4.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William D. Waddill sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.94, for a total transaction of $1,061,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,825 shares in the company, valued at $922,880.50. This trade represents a 53.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 65,761 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.11, for a total value of $9,805,622.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 523,478 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,055,804.58. The trade was a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 127,000 shares of company stock worth $17,818,139 in the last quarter. 5.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Johnson & Johnson purchased a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $300,220,852,000. NEXTBio Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $20,055,000. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $28,924,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $42,783,000. Finally, Stempoint Capital LP raised its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 22.1% in the first quarter. Stempoint Capital LP now owns 72,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,650,000 after acquiring an additional 13,147 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: PTGX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel, orally administered peptide-based therapies for immune-mediated and other serious diseases. The company leverages its proprietary Peptide 2.0 platform to design peptides that target G protein–coupled receptors and cytokine receptors, with the goal of combining the potency of biologics with the convenience of oral administration. Protagonist’s approach aims to address unmet medical needs in areas where injectable therapies have been the standard of care.

Among its lead programs is PTG-100, an oral α4β7 integrin antagonist intended to block leukocyte migration to the gut in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.