Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Shares Down 10% Following Insider Selling

Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) traded down 10% during mid-day trading on Monday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $26.20 and last traded at $25.8550. 257,648 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 10% from the average session volume of 233,663 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.73.

Specifically, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of the firm’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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,394,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,905,415.86. This trade represents a 7.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MPLT has been the subject of several research reports. HC Wainwright initiated coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, May 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC initiated coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings initiated coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. They set a “sell (e)” rating for the company. Lifesci Capital upgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Maplight Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.43.

Maplight Therapeutics Trading Up 2.7%

The company has a market capitalization of $1.19 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.68. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $24.58.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last issued 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). On average, analysts anticipate that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. Blue Owl Capital Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $5,745,000. Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $6,835,000. Seven Grand Managers LLC bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $1,756,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $34,026,000.

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.