Engineers Gate Manager LP Boosts Holdings in Royalty Pharma PLC $RPRX

Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its position in Royalty Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:RPRX) by 141.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 137,994 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 80,771 shares during the quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP’s holdings in Royalty Pharma were worth $7,737,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Royalty Pharma by 5,065.0% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 39,204,424 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,198,192,000 after acquiring an additional 38,445,382 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Royalty Pharma by 25.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 55,274,069 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,135,790,000 after purchasing an additional 11,110,115 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Royalty Pharma by 14.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 31,104,309 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,201,870,000 after buying an additional 3,891,615 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Royalty Pharma in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $131,923,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Royalty Pharma by 737.3% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 2,481,771 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $87,557,000 after buying an additional 2,185,366 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.35% of the company’s stock.

Royalty Pharma Stock Performance

RPRX opened at $58.75 on Friday. Royalty Pharma PLC has a 1-year low of $34.63 and a 1-year high of $64.38. The stock has a market cap of $33.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.44. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80.

Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $674.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $758.93 million. Royalty Pharma had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 32.14%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Royalty Pharma PLC will post 5.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royalty Pharma Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. Royalty Pharma’s payout ratio is 64.83%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Christopher Hite sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.97, for a total value of $5,997,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 370,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,212,947.97. This represents a 21.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Marshall Urist sold 9,099 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.88, for a total transaction of $508,452.12. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 398,197 shares of company stock worth $22,513,280 over the last quarter. Insiders own 18.84% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on RPRX. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Royalty Pharma from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Royalty Pharma from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Royalty Pharma in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Royalty Pharma from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $61.29.

Royalty Pharma Profile

Royalty Pharma plc is a biopharmaceutical royalty company that provides funding to life sciences companies in exchange for rights to receive future royalty payments from commercialized or late-stage therapies. Rather than developing and marketing medicines itself, the company invests in pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovations and seeks to generate income from the resulting royalty streams.

Its portfolio is linked to a range of therapies across areas including oncology, immunology, neuroscience, rare diseases and other specialty markets.