Armistice Capital LLC Boosts Holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $RIGL

Armistice Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) by 15.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 836,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 112,000 shares during the period. Armistice Capital LLC’s holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals were worth $35,806,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 96.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,091,223 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $46,737,000 after purchasing an additional 536,905 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 613,600 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $26,280,000 after buying an additional 12,267 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 390.8% during the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 544,282 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,312,000 after buying an additional 433,382 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 539,009 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,086,000 after buying an additional 64,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 110.6% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 360,966 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,226,000 after buying an additional 189,542 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Kamil Ali-Jackson sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.17, for a total value of $72,925.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $368,271.25. This represents a 16.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 10.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of RIGL stock opened at $33.37 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $617.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.11 and a 200 day moving average of $34.05. Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.14 and a 52 week high of $52.24. The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.36). Rigel Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 47.99% and a net margin of 121.50%.The company had revenue of $58.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $62.40 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on RIGL shares. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating and issued a $81.00 target price (up from $69.00) on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research cut shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Rigel Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.50.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Founded in 2003, Rigel focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule therapeutics targeting immune, hematologic and oncologic diseases. Leveraging a proprietary chemistry platform and expertise in signal transduction pathways, the company aims to address significant unmet medical needs in both rare and common disorders.

Rigel’s lead product, fostamatinib (commercially known as Tavalisse®), is an oral spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor approved in the United States for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).