Wall Street Zen Upgrades Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) to “Strong-Buy”

Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on RPRX. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $66.00 price objective on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Royalty Pharma from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 price target on shares of Royalty Pharma in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $61.29.

Royalty Pharma Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RPRX opened at $58.61 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $59.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.70 billion, a PE ratio of 40.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80. Royalty Pharma has a fifty-two week low of $34.63 and a fifty-two week high of $64.38.

Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.05. Royalty Pharma had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 32.14%.The company had revenue of $674.14 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $758.93 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Royalty Pharma will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Christopher Hite sold 150,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.40, for a total transaction of $8,160,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 559,399 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,431,305.60. This trade represents a 21.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Marshall Urist sold 9,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.88, for a total value of $508,452.12. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 398,197 shares of company stock valued at $22,513,280 over the last quarter. 18.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Royalty Pharma

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RPRX. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Royalty Pharma by 25.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 55,274,069 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,135,790,000 after buying an additional 11,110,115 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in Royalty Pharma by 5,065.0% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 39,204,424 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,198,192,000 after acquiring an additional 38,445,382 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Royalty Pharma by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 31,104,309 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,201,870,000 after acquiring an additional 3,891,615 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Royalty Pharma by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,649,641 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $411,502,000 after acquiring an additional 376,888 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Royalty Pharma by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,719,843 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $297,465,000 after acquiring an additional 102,430 shares during the period. 54.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Royalty Pharma Company Profile

Royalty Pharma plc is a biopharmaceutical royalty company that provides funding to life sciences companies in exchange for rights to receive future royalty payments from commercialized or late-stage therapies. Rather than developing and marketing medicines itself, the company invests in pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovations and seeks to generate income from the resulting royalty streams.

Its portfolio is linked to a range of therapies across areas including oncology, immunology, neuroscience, rare diseases and other specialty markets.