William Blair Investment Management LLC Takes $140.52 Million Position in PTC Therapeutics, Inc. $PTCT

William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTCT) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,722,688 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $140,520,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PTCT. UMB Bank n.a. acquired a new position in PTC Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Comerica Bank grew its holdings in PTC Therapeutics by 868.5% during the 3rd quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 523 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares during the period. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in shares of PTC Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. IFP Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of PTC Therapeutics by 68.1% in the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 765 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of PTC Therapeutics by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 634 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the period.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on PTCT shares. Weiss Ratings lowered PTC Therapeutics from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Monday. Zacks Research downgraded PTC Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Citigroup raised PTC Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $75.00 to $108.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on PTC Therapeutics from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of PTC Therapeutics from $120.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.55.

Insider Transactions at PTC Therapeutics

In related news, Director Michael Schmertzler sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.32, for a total value of $916,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,374,094 shares in the company, valued at $100,748,572.08. This trade represents a 0.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, VP Mark Elliott Boulding sold 2,813 shares of PTC Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.57, for a total transaction of $204,139.41. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 105,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,639,589.04. The trade was a 2.60% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 205,343 shares of company stock valued at $16,774,704. Company insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

PTC Therapeutics Price Performance

PTCT stock opened at $69.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.83 billion, a PE ratio of -120.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s 50-day moving average is $77.62 and its 200-day moving average is $72.35. PTC Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $48.28 and a 1 year high of $90.87.

PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTCT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.68. PTC Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 362.45% and a negative net margin of 3.80%.The company had revenue of $360.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $298.63 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.83) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 101.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that PTC Therapeutics, Inc. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

PTC Therapeutics Profile

PTC Therapeutics, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule and biologic therapies for the treatment of rare genetic disorders. Since its founding in 1998, PTC has dedicated its efforts to addressing high unmet medical needs by targeting underlying genetic causes of disease. The company’s research platform emphasizes mechanisms such as nonsense suppression and RNA modulation, enabling the development of novel treatments for conditions with limited therapeutic options.

Among PTC’s approved products is Translarna (ataluren), a first-in-class therapy designed to treat nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy in select markets.