Insider Selling: Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) CFO Sells 3,856 Shares of Stock

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) CFO Timothy Eugene Sullivan sold 3,856 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.19, for a total transaction of $85,564.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 107,080 shares in the company, valued at $2,376,105.20. This represents a 3.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Timothy Eugene Sullivan also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, October 21st, Timothy Eugene Sullivan sold 10,000 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.03, for a total transaction of $280,300.00.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 1.0%

NASDAQ:APLS traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $20.53. 2,191,474 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,495,767. The firm has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.23 and a beta of 0.31. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $22.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.41. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.10 and a 52-week high of $31.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 3.10.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.64. The business had revenue of $458.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $364.58 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 18.94% and a net margin of 4.43%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 133.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.46) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.7 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 11,373.8% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,704,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,681,263 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,977,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 46.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,976,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,452,000 after acquiring an additional 1,898,995 shares during the period. Polar Capital Holdings Plc raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 96.0% during the third quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,650,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,975,000 after acquiring an additional 1,298,055 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 386.7% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,604,105 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,585,000 after acquiring an additional 1,274,523 shares during the last quarter. 96.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on APLS. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. HC Wainwright reduced their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $57.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.65.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, traded as NASDAQ:APLS, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies targeting the complement cascade for the treatment of rare and debilitating diseases. The company’s research and development efforts center on modulating complement proteins to address a range of ophthalmologic, hematologic and renal conditions. Apellis leverages its proprietary compstatin technology platform to design targeted inhibitors intended to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

The company’s lead marketed product, Syfovre (pegcetacoplan), is an intravitreal complement C3 inhibitor approved for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, with ongoing investigations in other retinal disorders.