Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) Upgraded to “Hold” at Leerink Partnrs

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) was upgraded by stock analysts at Leerink Partnrs to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

ELAN has been the subject of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Elanco Animal Health from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $17.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 target price on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Leerink Partners started coverage on Elanco Animal Health in a research note on Monday. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $14.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.75.

Elanco Animal Health Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ELAN opened at $13.48 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 2.55 and a quick ratio of 1.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.69, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.61. Elanco Animal Health has a 12 month low of $11.40 and a 12 month high of $18.80.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. Elanco Animal Health had a return on equity of 6.78% and a net margin of 4.60%. Elanco Animal Health’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. Analysts expect that Elanco Animal Health will post 0.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Elanco Animal Health

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ELAN. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,912,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,617,000 after acquiring an additional 255,084 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its position in Elanco Animal Health by 61.2% in the second quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 8,336,657 shares of the company’s stock valued at $120,298,000 after purchasing an additional 3,164,350 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,868,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,623,000 after purchasing an additional 65,303 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 6,385,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,803,000 after purchasing an additional 394,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Elanco Animal Health by 19.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,007,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,875,000 after purchasing an additional 646,522 shares during the period. 97.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.