Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) Stock

AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) had its target price upped by Wedbush from $60.00 to $75.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 15.72% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on ANAB. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of AnaptysBio in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of AnaptysBio from $56.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on shares of AnaptysBio from $51.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating on shares of AnaptysBio in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AnaptysBio in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AnaptysBio presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $76.22.

AnaptysBio Stock Up 1.6%

NASDAQ:ANAB opened at $64.81 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -124.63 and a beta of 0.32. AnaptysBio has a 1-year low of $15.32 and a 1-year high of $66.66.

AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 3rd. The biotechnology company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.69. AnaptysBio had a negative return on equity of 1,101.24% and a negative net margin of 5.64%.The firm had revenue of $108.25 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.09 million. Equities analysts predict that AnaptysBio will post -6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

AnaptysBio announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Friday, November 21st that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the biotechnology company to reacquire up to 9.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at AnaptysBio

In other AnaptysBio news, insider Eric J. Loumeau sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total value of $540,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 12,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $693,090. The trade was a 43.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel Faga sold 14,281 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.71, for a total value of $638,503.51. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 479,344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,431,470.24. This trade represents a 2.89% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 156,280 shares of company stock valued at $7,254,939 in the last three months. 33.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in AnaptysBio by 940.8% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in AnaptysBio by 192.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 124,006 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $6,012,000 after purchasing an additional 81,625 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp bought a new position in shares of AnaptysBio in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,166,000. XTX Topco Ltd raised its position in shares of AnaptysBio by 113.3% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 38,637 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,873,000 after purchasing an additional 20,526 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AnaptysBio in the fourth quarter worth $215,000.

About AnaptysBio

AnaptysBio, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutic antibody product candidates in immunology and inflammation. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Diego, California, AnaptysBio leverages a proprietary somatic hypermutation platform to rapidly generate and refine human antibodies with optimized efficacy and safety profiles. The company’s technology is designed to accelerate target validation and candidate selection across a range of immune-mediated conditions.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple clinical-stage programs addressing dermatological and inflammatory disorders.