Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $APLS Position Reduced by Hudson Bay Capital Management LP

Hudson Bay Capital Management LP trimmed its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 418,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 56,500 shares during the quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP’s holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals were worth $9,471,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in APLS. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 11,373.8% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,704,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,821,000 after acquiring an additional 2,681,263 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,977,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 46.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,976,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,452,000 after purchasing an additional 1,898,995 shares in the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 96.0% during the 3rd quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 2,650,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,975,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298,055 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 386.7% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,604,105 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,585,000 after purchasing an additional 1,274,523 shares during the period. 96.29% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on APLS. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $35.00 to $31.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.42.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

APLS opened at $17.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 2.70 and a current ratio of 3.14. The company has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a PE ratio of 138.24 and a beta of 0.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $21.34 and a 200-day moving average of $23.02. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.10 and a 52-week high of $30.48.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.86. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 8.20% and a net margin of 2.23%.The business had revenue of $199.91 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $199.28 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.29) EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Apellis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CEO Cedric Francois sold 27,192 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total value of $591,969.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 286,045 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,227,199.65. The trade was a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Pascal Deschatelets sold 5,928 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total transaction of $129,052.56. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,151,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,065,586.14. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 115,537 shares of company stock valued at $2,486,082. 6.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Apellis Pharmaceuticals

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.