Magnetar Financial LLC Acquires 1,454,082 Shares of Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN)

Magnetar Financial LLC grew its holdings in Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) by 13.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,032,325 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,454,082 shares during the period. Elanco Animal Health makes up 3.5% of Magnetar Financial LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Magnetar Financial LLC owned 2.43% of Elanco Animal Health worth $145,711,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 3,267.6% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 6,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 5,947 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 20.6% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 22,524 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,000 after acquiring an additional 3,851 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 66.9% during the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 5,731,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,405,000 after acquiring an additional 2,296,691 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 972,292 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,774,000 after acquiring an additional 7,700 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Elanco Animal Health during the 4th quarter valued at about $652,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ELAN shares. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.17.

Elanco Animal Health Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ELAN opened at $10.85 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 2.55. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $10.03 and a fifty-two week high of $18.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.36 billion, a PE ratio of 27.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.66.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Elanco Animal Health had a return on equity of 6.78% and a net margin of 4.60%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.08 EPS. Elanco Animal Health’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Elanco Animal Health Incorporated will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lawrence Erik Kurzius purchased 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $10.20 per share, with a total value of $102,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 111,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,136,881.80. This represents a 9.86 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands.