Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Barclays started coverage on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $342.00 price objective on the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $273.00 price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $256.00 price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S from $262.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ascendis Pharma A/S presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $291.33.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Price Performance

ASND opened at $238.66 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $231.54 and its 200 day moving average is $218.99. Ascendis Pharma A/S has a fifty-two week low of $150.89 and a fifty-two week high of $250.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53 and a beta of 0.41.

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $285.45 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.32 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ascendis Pharma A/S will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ascendis Pharma A/S

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ASND. Perceptive Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in the second quarter valued at approximately $166,367,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 95.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,798,931 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $357,645,000 after purchasing an additional 880,836 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 2,722.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 793,677 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $157,791,000 after purchasing an additional 765,561 shares during the period. Vestal Point Capital LP raised its position in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 200.0% in the third quarter. Vestal Point Capital LP now owns 600,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $119,286,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares during the period. Finally, Spyglass Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in the third quarter valued at approximately $77,267,000.

About Ascendis Pharma A/S

Ascendis Pharma A/S is a Denmark‐based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies for rare endocrine diseases. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Hellerup, the company leverages its proprietary TransCon drug delivery platform to create long‐acting prodrugs designed to improve safety, efficacy and patient convenience. Ascendis Pharma maintains research and development operations in Europe and the United States, with clinical studies spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

The company’s lead product, lonapegsomatropin (Skytrofa®), is a once‐weekly growth hormone therapy approved by the U.S.