Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) Price Target Cut to $3.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) had its target price decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $4.00 to $3.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Pliant Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Pliant Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $4.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup downgraded Pliant Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $4.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $4.00 target price (down from $43.00) on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.31.

Pliant Therapeutics Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of PLRX opened at $1.35 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $82.15 million, a PE ratio of -0.40 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day moving average of $8.84 and a 200 day moving average of $11.73. Pliant Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $1.27 and a 52-week high of $16.73. The company has a quick ratio of 10.26, a current ratio of 10.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 3rd. The company reported ($0.82) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.99) by $0.17. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Pliant Therapeutics will post -3.64 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pliant Therapeutics

In related news, CEO Bernard Coulie sold 52,419 shares of Pliant Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total value of $587,092.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 430,517 shares in the company, valued at $4,821,790.40. The trade was a 10.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Mike Ouimette sold 10,230 shares of Pliant Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.99, for a total value of $112,427.70. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 70,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $775,278.56. The trade was a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 91,855 shares of company stock worth $1,026,628 over the last three months. 6.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pliant Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Pliant Therapeutics by 233.8% in the third quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 91,979 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,031,000 after purchasing an additional 64,422 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new position in Pliant Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $112,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in Pliant Therapeutics by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,402,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,725,000 after purchasing an additional 26,610 shares during the last quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. grew its stake in Pliant Therapeutics by 265.2% in the third quarter. Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. now owns 170,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,908,000 after purchasing an additional 123,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Pliant Therapeutics by 2.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,318,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,781,000 after purchasing an additional 31,221 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.30% of the company’s stock.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.