Short Interest in Applied Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLT) Rises By 17.6%

Applied Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLT) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,530,000 shares, a growth of 17.6% from the September 30th total of 12,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on APLT shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of Applied Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. William Blair raised shares of Applied Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Leerink Partners increased their price target on shares of Applied Therapeutics from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Applied Therapeutics from $8.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Shoshana Shendelman sold 119,591 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.93, for a total transaction of $709,174.63. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,690,839 shares in the company, valued at $27,816,675.27. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 8.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Applied Therapeutics by 198.6% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,414,642 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,555,000 after buying an additional 4,266,179 shares during the last quarter. StemPoint Capital LP lifted its position in Applied Therapeutics by 122.3% in the 1st quarter. StemPoint Capital LP now owns 2,017,016 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,716,000 after purchasing an additional 1,109,864 shares during the last quarter. Artal Group S.A. acquired a new position in Applied Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at about $6,865,000. Propel Bio Management LLC grew its position in Applied Therapeutics by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Propel Bio Management LLC now owns 6,111,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,561,000 after purchasing an additional 736,924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peregrine Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Applied Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,414,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.31% of the company’s stock.

Applied Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:APLT opened at $8.43 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $7.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.70. Applied Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $1.79 and a 1-year high of $9.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $963.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.58 and a beta of 2.04.

Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $0.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.00 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Applied Therapeutics will post -0.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Therapeutics Company Profile

Applied Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of a pipeline of novel product candidates against validated molecular targets in indications of high unmet medical need in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is AT-007 (also called govorestat) that has completed phase 3 for the treatment of galactosemia in healthy volunteers and adults, in pediatric clinical study for the treatment of galactosemia in kids, for treating enzyme sorbitol dehydrogenase, and for the treatment of phosphomannomutase enzyme-CDG.