Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Shares Gap Down to $41.52

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $41.52, but opened at $39.52. Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares last traded at $38.26, with a volume of 222,397 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on APLS. Citigroup dropped their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $89.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $92.00 target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $74.38.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 6.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 3.77 and a quick ratio of 3.02. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.06 and a beta of 0.95.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.54) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54). The company had revenue of $172.33 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $163.37 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 79.67% and a negative return on equity of 160.77%. Apellis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 284.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($1.56) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Apellis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director A. Sinclair Dunlop sold 37,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.24, for a total transaction of $1,451,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 136,998 shares in the company, valued at $5,375,801.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Apellis Pharmaceuticals news, insider Pascal Deschatelets sold 78,907 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.35, for a total value of $3,341,711.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,115,983 shares in the company, valued at $47,261,880.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director A. Sinclair Dunlop sold 37,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.24, for a total transaction of $1,451,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 136,998 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,375,801.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 189,014 shares of company stock worth $8,771,758. Company insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,555,678 shares of the company’s stock valued at $572,003,000 after purchasing an additional 85,701 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 38.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,460,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,277,000 after purchasing an additional 677,098 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 109.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,145,004 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,400,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121,497 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 126.6% during the third quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 1,053,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,089,000 after purchasing an additional 588,875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $56,640,000. 96.29% of the stock is currently 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).