Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) Short Interest Up 54.9% in October

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 718,000 shares, a growth of 54.9% from the September 30th total of 463,500 shares. Approximately 4.2% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 135,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Rigel Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RIGL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at $7,148,000. Ground Swell Capital LLC bought a new stake in Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $141,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 4.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,367,424 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $13,864,000 after acquiring an additional 414,207 shares in the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP increased its position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 167.8% during the first quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 30,480 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 19,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth approximately $2,012,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.23% of the company’s stock.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RIGL traded down $0.27 on Friday, hitting $14.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 101,869 shares, compared to its average volume of 150,018. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $14.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.55. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $7.21 and a 12 month high of $17.30. The company has a market capitalization of $248.62 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by $0.31. The company had revenue of $36.84 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.40) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Rigel Pharmaceuticals will post -0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RIGL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $15.00 price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Rigel Pharmaceuticals currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.13.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, engages in discovering, developing, and providing therapies that enhance the lives of patients with hematologic disorders and cancer. The company’s commercialized products include Tavalisse, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia; Rezlidhia, a non-intensive monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test; and GAVRETO, a once daily, small molecule, oral, kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, as well as for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer.