Short Interest in Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) Decreases By 86.8%

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 648,200 shares, a drop of 86.8% from the June 15th total of 4,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 207,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.1 days. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 5th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.13.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RIGL. Bayesian Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 19,100 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 57.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 49,673 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 18,180 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 24.2% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 252,955 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $374,000 after acquiring an additional 49,223 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 49.1% during the first quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 603,123 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $893,000 after acquiring an additional 198,712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth about $2,012,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.23% of the company’s stock.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

RIGL traded up $0.36 on Friday, hitting $9.98. The company had a trading volume of 244,600 shares, compared to its average volume of 160,623. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $9.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.81. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $7.12 and a 12-month high of $17.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.32 and a beta of 0.96.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.50) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.30) by ($0.20). The business had revenue of $29.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.28 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.80) EPS. Analysts forecast that Rigel Pharmaceuticals will post -1.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

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.