Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) in a research note issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage set a “sector perform” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 19.72% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on ALKS. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Alkermes from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Mizuho increased their target price on Alkermes from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Alkermes in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group upgraded Alkermes from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Alkermes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.46.

Alkermes Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of ALKS opened at $33.41 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.77. The stock has a market cap of $5.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.40, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.61. Alkermes has a 52 week low of $22.90 and a 52 week high of $36.45.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.11. Alkermes had a return on equity of 30.80% and a net margin of 23.57%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Alkermes will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Craig C. Hopkinson sold 144,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total value of $5,131,207.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,056,298.75. This trade represents a 71.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 4.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alkermes

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ALKS. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Alkermes during the 4th quarter valued at $3,273,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Alkermes by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 332,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,566,000 after acquiring an additional 27,604 shares during the period. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new position in Alkermes during the 4th quarter valued at $98,000. Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its holdings in Alkermes by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 19,801 shares of the company’s stock valued at $569,000 after acquiring an additional 2,755 shares during the period. Finally, Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Alkermes by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. now owns 601,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,288,000 after acquiring an additional 25,000 shares during the period. 95.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Alkermes Company Profile

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.