Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) Trading Down 8.7% – Here’s What Happened

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) traded down 8.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $10.68 and last traded at $10.91. 176,235 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 472,033 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.95.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $38.00 price objective on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a report on Friday, November 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pliant Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $40.50.

Pliant Therapeutics Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $12.79 and a 200 day moving average of $12.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 10.26 and a current ratio of 10.26. The firm has a market cap of $632.84 million, a P/E ratio of -3.12 and a beta of 1.03.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.95) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.99) by $0.04. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Bernard Coulie sold 52,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total value of $587,092.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 430,517 shares in the company, valued at $4,821,790.40. This trade represents a 10.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Mike Ouimette sold 10,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.99, for a total transaction of $112,427.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 70,544 shares in the company, valued at approximately $775,278.56. The trade was a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 91,855 shares of company stock valued at $1,026,628 over the last 90 days. 6.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pliant Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PLRX. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $112,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 65.0% during the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock worth $131,000 after acquiring an additional 4,607 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $145,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at $342,000. 97.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.