Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Earns “Buy” Rating from HC Wainwright

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $50.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright’s target price points to a potential upside of 32.45% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on PTGX. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, December 6th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, December 6th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 price objective on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.33.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of PTGX opened at $37.75 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $39.24 and a 200-day moving average of $41.89. Protagonist Therapeutics has a one year low of $24.22 and a one year high of $48.89. The company has a market cap of $2.25 billion, a PE ratio of 14.19 and a beta of 2.22.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.54) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.59) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $4.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.50 million. Protagonist Therapeutics had a net margin of 52.76% and a return on equity of 34.68%. Analysts expect that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 2.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Arturo Md Molina sold 1,906 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.98, for a total transaction of $78,107.88. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 46,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,903,275.12. The trade was a 3.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Suneel Gupta sold 103,437 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.04, for a total transaction of $4,762,239.48. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 256,174 shares in the company, valued at $11,794,250.96. This trade represents a 28.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 209,863 shares of company stock worth $9,689,847. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Protagonist Therapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. RTW Investments LP grew its holdings in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 5,426,112 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,175,000 after purchasing an additional 139,708 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 52.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,183,542 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,101,218 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,876,466 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,432,000 after acquiring an additional 142,376 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,374,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,873,000 after acquiring an additional 3,528 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 578,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,327,000 after acquiring an additional 12,906 shares during the last quarter. 98.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.