Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock Lifted to “Strong-Buy” by Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Zacks reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on PTGX. Wall Street Zen downgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings raised Protagonist Therapeutics from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $153.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $118.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $110.00 to $186.00 in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and sixteen have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Protagonist Therapeutics has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $154.44.

Protagonist Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of PTGX opened at $136.55 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $145.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.57 and a beta of 1.53. Protagonist Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $73.08 and a 52 week high of $160.81.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last released its 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 return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 29.40%. The business had revenue of $213.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.03 million. Protagonist Therapeutics’s revenue for the quarter was up 3746.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Protagonist Therapeutics

In other Protagonist Therapeutics news, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 65,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 $78,055,804.58. This represents a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Asif Ali sold 58,629 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.78, for a total value of $8,312,419.62. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 59,003 shares in the company, valued at $8,365,445.34. This trade represents a 49.84% 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 have sold a total of 283,629 shares of company stock valued at $41,443,786 in the last 90 days. 5.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Keating Financial Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Allworth Financial LP acquired a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $89,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 63.0% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 352 shares during the last quarter. 98.63% of the stock is owned by 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.