Arcturus Therapeutics Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:ARCT)

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:ARCT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors acquired 15,396 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 550% compared to the typical volume of 2,369 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Arcturus Therapeutics from $45.00 to $42.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Leerink Partners reduced their price target on shares of Arcturus Therapeutics from $63.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Arcturus Therapeutics in a report on Friday, October 10th. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Arcturus Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Arcturus Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.57.

Arcturus Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARCT opened at $21.51 on Tuesday. Arcturus Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $8.04 and a fifty-two week high of $23.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $584.21 million, a P/E ratio of -9.65 and a beta of 2.39. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.68.

Arcturus Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARCT) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.34) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.11) by $0.77. The company had revenue of $28.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.64 million. Arcturus Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 49.26% and a negative return on equity of 24.87%. On average, research analysts forecast that Arcturus Therapeutics will post -2.22 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Arcturus Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ARK Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Arcturus Therapeutics by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 2,008,480 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,270,000 after purchasing an additional 74,629 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Arcturus Therapeutics by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,748,928 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $18,521,000 after purchasing an additional 64,367 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Arcturus Therapeutics by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 606,291 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,889,000 after purchasing an additional 36,671 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Arcturus Therapeutics by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 509,712 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,398,000 after buying an additional 42,636 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC purchased a new position in Arcturus Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,892,000. 94.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arcturus Therapeutics Company Profile

Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc, a late-stage clinical messenger RNA medicines and vaccine company, focuses on the development of infectious disease vaccines and other products within liver and respiratory rare diseases. Its technology platforms include LUNAR lipid-mediated delivery and STARR mRNA.