Apellis Pharmaceuticals’ (APLS) “Sector Perform” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $26.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential downside of 13.81% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on APLS. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $61.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $31.00 target price for the company. William Blair started coverage on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $36.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.71.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock traded up $0.23 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $30.17. The stock had a trading volume of 413,834 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,182,471. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $31.89 and its 200 day moving average is $33.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a PE ratio of -14.86 and a beta of 0.94. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $24.34 and a twelve month high of $71.90. The company has a current ratio of 4.36, a quick ratio of 3.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported ($0.46) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $196.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $200.00 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 103.11% and a negative net margin of 34.97%. The company’s revenue was up 78.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($1.17) EPS. Equities analysts expect that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apellis Pharmaceuticals

In other Apellis Pharmaceuticals news, CEO Cedric Francois sold 6,247 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.70, for a total transaction of $179,288.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 307,415 shares in the company, valued at $8,822,810.50. This represents a 1.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Caroline Baumal sold 2,816 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.81, for a total transaction of $95,208.96. Following the sale, the insider now owns 55,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,878,483.60. This trade represents a 4.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 17,308 shares of company stock worth $511,406. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apellis Pharmaceuticals

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $254,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 135.6% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $949,000 after purchasing an additional 17,115 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank increased its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 87.0% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 21,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $686,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,884,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,036,000 after purchasing an additional 735,160 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exome Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 114.0% in the 3rd quarter. Exome Asset Management LLC now owns 100,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,895,000 after purchasing an additional 53,467 shares during the last quarter. 96.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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).