Analysts Set AnaptysBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANAB) Price Target at $79.18

AnaptysBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANAB) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $79.1818.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Leerink Partners set a $90.00 price objective on shares of AnaptysBio in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AnaptysBio from $63.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of AnaptysBio from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of AnaptysBio from $60.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of AnaptysBio from $56.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th.

AnaptysBio Trading Down 0.1%

ANAB opened at $57.69 on Thursday. AnaptysBio has a 1-year low of $11.40 and a 1-year high of $72.36. The company has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a PE ratio of -53.42 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.09.

AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.84) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by ($1.20). AnaptysBio had a negative return on equity of 1,101.24% and a negative net margin of 11.53%.The business had revenue of $25.56 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.86 million. Equities analysts forecast that AnaptysBio will post -1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AnaptysBio announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Friday, March 27th that permits the company to repurchase $100,000.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the biotechnology company to repurchase up to 5,352,316.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John P. Schmid sold 20,645 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.11, for a total value of $1,158,390.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 31,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,774,310.42. This represents a 39.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel Faga sold 17,679 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.61, for a total transaction of $1,089,203.19. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 495,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,556,403.65. This trade represents a 3.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 33.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AnaptysBio

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ANAB. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AnaptysBio by 153.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 30,011 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 18,165 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in AnaptysBio by 26.9% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,854 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $374,000 after acquiring an additional 3,571 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in AnaptysBio by 1,631.6% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 247,625 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,497,000 after acquiring an additional 233,325 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. purchased a new position in AnaptysBio during the second quarter valued at $528,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in AnaptysBio during the second quarter valued at $3,348,000.

AnaptysBio Company Profile

AnaptysBio, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutic antibody product candidates in immunology and inflammation. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Diego, California, AnaptysBio leverages a proprietary somatic hypermutation platform to rapidly generate and refine human antibodies with optimized efficacy and safety profiles. The company’s technology is designed to accelerate target validation and candidate selection across a range of immune-mediated conditions.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple clinical-stage programs addressing dermatological and inflammatory disorders.