Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) Earns “Buy” Rating from HC Wainwright

Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $12.00 price objective on the stock. HC Wainwright’s target price points to a potential upside of 160.30% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on ALT. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on Altimmune in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $18.00 target price for the company. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Altimmune in a report on Friday, March 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.83.

Altimmune Price Performance

ALT stock traded down $0.17 on Thursday, reaching $4.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,152,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,918,279. Altimmune has a 52 week low of $4.48 and a 52 week high of $11.16. The company has a market capitalization of $355.03 million, a P/E ratio of -2.97 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $6.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $7.00.

Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $0.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.00 million. Altimmune had a negative return on equity of 55.81% and a negative net margin of 199,076.92%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Altimmune will post -1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Altimmune news, CFO Gregory L. Weaver purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $5.20 per share, with a total value of $52,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,000. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altimmune

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALT. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Altimmune during the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altimmune during the 4th quarter valued at about $60,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new position in Altimmune in the fourth quarter worth approximately $72,000. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Altimmune during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Finally, Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in Altimmune by 356.8% in the fourth quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 10,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 8,470 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.05% of the company’s stock.

About Altimmune

Altimmune, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The company's lead product candidate, pemvidutide, a GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist that is in Phase 2 trial for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.