Alector’s (ALEC) “Underweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley restated their underweight rating on shares of Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has a $1.50 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $3.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Mizuho downgraded Alector from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $9.00 to $2.50 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $7.00 price target on shares of Alector in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Alector in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America downgraded Alector from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $1.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Alector from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $4.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Alector presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $3.50.

Alector Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ALEC opened at $1.44 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.38. Alector has a 1-year low of $1.30 and a 1-year high of $6.97. The company has a market cap of $142.68 million, a PE ratio of -0.85 and a beta of 0.65.

Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.61) by $0.59. Alector had a negative return on equity of 108.77% and a negative net margin of 257.54%. The company had revenue of $54.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.41 million. Analysts anticipate that Alector will post -1.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Alector

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ALEC. RA Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Alector during the 4th quarter worth about $18,324,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Alector by 64.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,728,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,716,000 after purchasing an additional 1,072,298 shares in the last quarter. 5AM Venture Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alector during the 4th quarter worth about $1,882,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Alector by 63.0% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 915,738 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,731,000 after purchasing an additional 353,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Almitas Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Alector during the 4th quarter worth about $538,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.83% of the company’s stock.

Alector Company Profile

Alector, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for the treatment of neurodegeneration diseases. Its products include AL001, an immune activity in the brain with genetic links to multiple neurodegenerative disorders, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diseases; and AL101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.