James George Chopas Sells 548 Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Stock

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) CAO James George Chopas sold 548 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.08, for a total transaction of $15,387.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 53,657 shares in the company, valued at $1,506,688.56. The trade was a 1.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 3.1%

APLS opened at $28.65 on Friday. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $16.10 and a fifty-two week high of $41.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.90, a current ratio of 3.77 and a quick ratio of 3.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.74 and a beta of 0.73. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $22.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.39.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.11. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.24% and a negative return on equity of 116.09%. The firm had revenue of $171.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $187.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.30) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apellis Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.12.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,130,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,551,000 after acquiring an additional 84,331 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 46.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,976,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,452,000 after acquiring an additional 1,898,995 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 11,373.8% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,704,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,821,000 after acquiring an additional 2,681,263 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 7.4% during the second quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,661,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,076,000 after acquiring an additional 184,292 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $40,977,000. 96.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA).