Insider Selling: Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) Director Sells 4,000 Shares of Stock

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) Director William D. Waddill sold 4,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.25, for a total value of $217,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,130 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $712,302.50. The trade was a 23.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

Protagonist Therapeutics stock traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $54.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,043,472 shares, compared to its average volume of 740,072. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43 and a beta of 2.34. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.39. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $24.22 and a 52-week high of $60.60.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 21st. The company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by $2.07. The firm had revenue of $170.64 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $56.65 million. Protagonist Therapeutics had a net margin of 52.76% and a return on equity of 34.68%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 127.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 81,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,782,000 after acquiring an additional 45,674 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $2,250,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 7.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 565,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,448,000 after purchasing an additional 39,850 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 3,099.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 320,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,437,000 after purchasing an additional 310,804 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $861,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $43.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $62.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Truist Financial raised their target price on Protagonist Therapeutics from $60.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.56.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops peptide-based drugs for hematology and blood disorders, and inflammatory and immunomodulatory diseases. It is developing Rusfertide (PTG-300), an injectable hepcidin mimetic that completed phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of polycythemia vera and other blood disorders; and JNJ-2113, an orally delivered investigational drug to block biological pathways that completed phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis; and PN-943, an orally delivered, gut-restricted alpha 4 beta 7 specific integrin antagonist completed a phase 2 clinical trials in patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.