WJ Financial Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $REGN

WJ Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:REGN) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,037 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $583,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,832,002 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,536,801,000 after acquiring an additional 42,343 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox lifted its position in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 64.6% during the second quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 3,826,283 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,008,799,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,198 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 1.6% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,313,496 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,214,585,000 after purchasing an additional 36,821 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 18.6% in the second quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,941,070 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,019,062,000 after purchasing an additional 305,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $628,151,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.31% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Regeneron Pharmaceuticals news, SVP Jason Pitofsky sold 2,036 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $778.52, for a total value of $1,585,066.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 4,272 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,325,837.44. The trade was a 32.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur F. Ryan sold 100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $778.53, for a total transaction of $77,853.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 17,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,860,169.59. This trade represents a 0.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 3,636 shares of company stock valued at $2,862,920 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 7.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on REGN shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $627.00 to $860.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $865.00 price target (up previously from $750.00) on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $595.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $865.00 to $975.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Evercore boosted their target price on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $750.00 to $875.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $793.81.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $803.17 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $762.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $665.05. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 12-month low of $476.49 and a 12-month high of $821.11. The company has a current ratio of 4.13, a quick ratio of 3.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market cap of $84.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.33, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.40.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $11.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $10.74 by $0.70. The company had revenue of $3.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.76 billion. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 31.41% and a return on equity of 13.04%. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $12.07 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 35.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 5th. Investors of record on Friday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.94 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 20th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is a boost from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.05%.

About Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ: REGN) is a U.S.-based biotechnology company founded in 1988 and headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. It focuses on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing medicines for serious medical conditions. The company combines laboratory research, clinical development and in-house manufacturing to advance a pipeline of biologic therapies across multiple therapeutic areas.

Regeneron is known for its proprietary drug discovery technologies, including its VelocImmune platform, which is used to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies.