Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, July 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $3.00.

Pliant Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of PLRX opened at $1.08 on Friday. Pliant Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $1.02 and a 52-week high of $1.95. The firm has a market cap of $66.87 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.72 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s fifty day moving average is $1.11 and its 200-day moving average is $1.18.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). As a group, research analysts forecast that Pliant Therapeutics will post -1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pliant Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Spark Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $32,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $38,000. Algert Global LLC grew its stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 46.1% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 123,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $141,000 after purchasing an additional 38,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at $185,000. 97.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing therapies for fibrotic diseases. The company’s research centers on integrins, cell-surface proteins that regulate biological processes involved in tissue repair and fibrosis. Pliant seeks to develop medicines that address fibrosis in organs including the lungs and liver.

Pliant’s lead investigational product is bexotegrast, an oral small-molecule inhibitor designed to selectively target the alphaV beta6 and alphaV beta1 integrins.