Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at Raymond James Financial

Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on MPLT. Lifesci Capital raised shares of Maplight Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen lowered Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group began coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Maplight Therapeutics from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.80.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MPLT opened at $31.96 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $29.11 and a 200-day moving average of $22.44. The stock has a market cap of $1.36 billion and a PE ratio of -0.78. Maplight Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $12.24 and a fifty-two week high of $33.28.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). On average, sell-side analysts predict that Maplight Therapeutics will post -5.04 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Maplight Therapeutics news, insider Jonathan Gillis sold 51,900 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.74, for a total transaction of $1,543,506.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 199,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,922,839.96. The trade was a 20.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total value of $3,214,809.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,394,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,905,415.86. The trade was a 7.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 495,244 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,461 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Maplight Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey purchased a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at about $70,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund bought a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $93,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $172,000. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $205,000.

About Maplight Therapeutics

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.