Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT)

Applied Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLT) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 10,681 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 2,011% compared to the typical daily volume of 506 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Shoshana Shendelman sold 300,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.98, for a total value of $1,794,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 5,167,853 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,903,760.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 8.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $54,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $81,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $87,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $110,000. 98.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Applied Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:APLT opened at $8.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $5.76 and a 200-day moving average of $5.33. The company has a market capitalization of $914.14 million, a PE ratio of -4.35 and a beta of 2.03. Applied Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $1.79 and a 52-week high of $9.39.

Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.13) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $0.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.00 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that Applied Therapeutics will post -0.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of Applied Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Citigroup raised their price target on Applied Therapeutics from $8.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. William Blair raised Applied Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Leerink Partners increased their price objective on Applied Therapeutics from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.50.

About Applied Therapeutics

Applied Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of a pipeline of novel product candidates against validated molecular targets in indications of high unmet medical need in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is AT-007 (also called govorestat) that has completed phase 3 for the treatment of galactosemia in healthy volunteers and adults, in pediatric clinical study for the treatment of galactosemia in kids, for treating enzyme sorbitol dehydrogenase, and for the treatment of phosphomannomutase enzyme-CDG.