Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) has earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $34.4167.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on MPLT shares. HC Wainwright dropped their target price on Maplight Therapeutics from $45.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Monday. Lifesci Capital upgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of Maplight Therapeutics from $43.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $21.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Up 22.0%

Shares of MPLT stock opened at $15.02 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $640.12 million and a P/E ratio of -0.37. The business has a 50 day moving average of $31.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.99. Maplight Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $9.10 and a 52 week high of $40.43.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). Analysts expect that Maplight Therapeutics will post -5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Maplight Therapeutics

In other Maplight Therapeutics news, insider James Woodruff Lillie sold 24,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total value of $713,564.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 243,450 shares in the company, valued at $7,001,622. This represents a 9.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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, insider Erin Pennock Foff sold 4,438 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.54, for a total value of $126,660.52. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 346,059 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,876,523.86. The trade was a 1.27% 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. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 379,987 shares of company stock valued at $10,644,411. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Maplight Therapeutics

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