Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock Moved Up to Strong-Buy by UBS Group

UBS Group upgraded shares of Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday,Zacks reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $178.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Protagonist Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $186.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on Protagonist Therapeutics from $118.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $154.44.

Protagonist Therapeutics Stock Down 4.4%

NASDAQ:PTGX opened at $138.49 on Monday. Protagonist Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $73.08 and a 52-week high of $160.81. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $145.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.41. The company has a market capitalization of $8.96 billion, a PE ratio of 134.46 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Insider Activity at Protagonist Therapeutics

In related news, CFO Asif Ali sold 58,629 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.78, for a total transaction of $8,312,419.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 59,003 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,365,445.34. This represents a 49.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 7,278 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.10, for a total transaction of $1,048,759.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 522,968 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,359,688.80. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. 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 283,629 shares of company stock worth $41,443,786 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 5.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Protagonist Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,263,535,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Protagonist Therapeutics by 9.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,891,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,866,000 after buying an additional 241,546 shares during the period. Johnson & Johnson purchased a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter worth approximately $300,220,852. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter worth approximately $261,039,000. Finally, Perceptive Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 1,350,425 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,946,000 after acquiring an additional 320,291 shares in the last quarter. 98.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ:PTGX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing peptide-based medicines for chronic immune-mediated and hematologic diseases. The company uses its proprietary technology platform to design peptides intended to selectively interact with disease-relevant biological targets.

Protagonist’s pipeline includes icotrokinra, formerly known as JNJ-2113, an investigational oral peptide that selectively targets the interleukin-23 receptor.