HC Wainwright Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) had its target price boosted by stock analysts at HC Wainwright from $170.00 to $221.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 66.85% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Johnson Rice set a $165.00 price target on Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research raised Protagonist Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 10th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $178.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $166.67.

Protagonist Therapeutics Stock Down 2.1%

Shares of PTGX traded down $2.81 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $132.46. The company had a trading volume of 663,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 713,834. The firm has a market cap of $8.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 128.46 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $141.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $117.59. Protagonist Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $76.70 and a 52-week high of $160.81.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported $3.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.50 by $0.57. Protagonist Therapeutics had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 29.40%. The company had revenue of $274.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.49 million. On average, research analysts expect that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 4.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Dinsesh Patel sold 7,278 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 522,968 shares in the company, valued at $75,359,688.80. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Asif Ali sold 58,629 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 59,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,365,445.34. This represents a 49.84% decrease in their position. 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 sold 283,629 shares of company stock worth $41,443,786 over the last three months. 5.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Protagonist Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $1,263,535,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Protagonist Therapeutics by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,891,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,866,000 after purchasing an additional 241,546 shares during the period. Johnson & Johnson purchased a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at $300,220,852. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth $261,039,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth $162,357,000. 98.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing peptide-based medicines for immune-mediated and hematologic diseases. The company uses its proprietary peptide technology platform to design therapies intended to act on specific biological pathways and receptors.

Its leading program is icotrokinra, also known as JNJ-2113, an oral, targeted inhibitor of the interleukin-23 receptor being developed in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals for inflammatory and immune-mediated conditions, including psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases.