Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Rating Increased to Hold at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on APLS. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.00.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock traded up $0.42 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $23.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 292,790 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,046,457. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $16.10 and a one year high of $30.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 3.10 and a current ratio of 3.54. The firm has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.76 and a beta of 0.31. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $23.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.62.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.64. The firm had revenue of $458.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $364.58 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 18.94% and a net margin of 4.43%.The company’s revenue was up 133.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.46) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Pascal Deschatelets sold 5,928 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total value of $129,052.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,151,382 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,065,586.14. The trade was a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Caroline Baumal sold 2,797 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total value of $60,890.69. Following the sale, the insider owned 86,527 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,883,692.79. This trade represents a 3.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 125,169 shares of company stock worth $2,700,681 in the last three months. Company insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apellis Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in APLS. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 322.8% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 55,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,383,000 after acquiring an additional 42,041 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH grew its stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 107.7% during the fourth quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 95,755 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,405,000 after purchasing an additional 49,642 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 25,364 shares of the company’s stock worth $637,000 after purchasing an additional 4,047 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 25.9% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 6,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 1,266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 51,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,305,000 after acquiring an additional 3,804 shares during the last quarter. 96.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, traded as NASDAQ:APLS, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies targeting the complement cascade for the treatment of rare and debilitating diseases. The company’s research and development efforts center on modulating complement proteins to address a range of ophthalmologic, hematologic and renal conditions. Apellis leverages its proprietary compstatin technology platform to design targeted inhibitors intended to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

The company’s lead marketed product, Syfovre (pegcetacoplan), is an intravitreal complement C3 inhibitor approved for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, with ongoing investigations in other retinal disorders.