Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) Short Interest Up 27.1% in December

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 807,500 shares, an increase of 27.1% from the December 15th total of 635,400 shares. Currently, 4.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 243,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on RIGL. B. Riley boosted their target price on Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $17.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price target on Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $15.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $15.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.20.

Institutional Trading of Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RIGL. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 42.8% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 9,429 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 2,827 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at $193,000. Empire Financial Management Company LLC acquired a new position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at $231,000. PDT Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at $322,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 1,199.2% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 21,008 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $340,000 after buying an additional 19,391 shares during the period. 66.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

RIGL stock traded up $2.78 during trading on Friday, hitting $20.13. The stock had a trading volume of 584,497 shares, compared to its average volume of 287,492. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $7.48 and a 1-year high of $29.82. The stock has a market cap of $354.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 143.80 and a beta of 1.31. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $21.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.70.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, engages in discovering, developing, and providing therapies that enhance the lives of patients with hematologic disorders and cancer. The company’s commercialized products include Tavalisse, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia; Rezlidhia, a non-intensive monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test; and GAVRETO, a once daily, small molecule, oral, kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, as well as for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer.