Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $337.89 According to Analysts

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the ten analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $337.89.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LGND shares. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, September 25th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $345.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded Ligand Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, September 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $340.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $255.00 to $332.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $326.00 price objective (up from $285.00) on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, August 3rd.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of LGND stock opened at $302.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 31.18 and a quick ratio of 30.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $291.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $261.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.14. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $175.89 and a 12 month high of $326.63.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $2.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.40. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 20.06% and a net margin of 67.88%.The firm had revenue of $63.69 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.30 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.60 earnings per share. Ligand Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.8% on a year-over-year basis. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.000-9.500 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ligand Pharmaceuticals will post 5.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.09, for a total transaction of $1,430,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 36,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,446,290.26. The trade was a 12.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Martine Zimmermann sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.00, for a total value of $342,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,110,645. This trade represents a 23.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 49,979 shares of company stock valued at $14,548,548 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,359,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 115.9% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 496,160 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $93,809,000 after acquiring an additional 266,304 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 265.4% during the 4th quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 117,432 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $22,204,000 after acquiring an additional 85,297 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 493,589 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $93,336,000 after acquiring an additional 19,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Future Fund LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. Future Fund LLC now owns 13,840 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,763,000 after acquiring an additional 4,560 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is a biopharmaceutical company that develops and licenses technologies and drug assets to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners. Rather than operating primarily as a traditional commercial drug manufacturer, Ligand focuses on building a portfolio of royalty agreements, licensing arrangements and other partnerships that can generate payments when partnered products are developed, approved and sold.

The company’s best-known technology is Captisol, a chemically modified cyclodextrin designed to improve the solubility, stability and delivery of certain drug compounds.