Evercore ISI Upgrades Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) to Strong-Buy

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on APLS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $64.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 13th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $96.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, September 20th. William Blair assumed coverage on Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.41.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.6 %

NASDAQ:APLS traded up $0.72 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $27.98. The stock had a trading volume of 3,251,327 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,693,979. The business’s 50 day moving average is $32.04 and its 200 day moving average is $37.70. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $26.28 and a fifty-two week high of $73.80. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.21 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a current ratio of 5.08 and a quick ratio of 4.18.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.30) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.03. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 138.32% and a negative net margin of 52.99%. The firm had revenue of $199.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.89 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.02) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 110.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director A. Sinclair Dunlop sold 37,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total value of $1,340,510.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,623,000. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 6.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of APLS. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 191.9% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,144,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,845,000 after acquiring an additional 1,409,707 shares in the last quarter. Iron Triangle Partners LP acquired a new position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth $32,329,000. Fiera Capital Corp raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 47.7% during the second quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 1,401,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,750,000 after acquiring an additional 452,753 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 337.3% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 246,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,177,000 after acquiring an additional 190,420 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Redmile Group LLC acquired a new position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth $9,111,000. 96.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA).