Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) Downgraded by Zacks Research to “Hold”

Zacks Research lowered shares of Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday,Zacks reports.

HALO has been the topic of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from $105.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Citizens Jmp upped their target price on shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from $93.00 to $149.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Halozyme Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $108.18.

Halozyme Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of HALO opened at $100.67 on Wednesday. Halozyme Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $61.22 and a 52-week high of $134.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.50, a quick ratio of 3.60 and a current ratio of 3.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.92.

Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $492.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $491.63 million. Halozyme Therapeutics had a return on equity of 751.81% and a net margin of 26.93%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Halozyme Therapeutics will post 8.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halozyme Therapeutics

In other Halozyme Therapeutics news, Director Matthew L. Posard sold 5,230 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.54, for a total value of $567,664.20. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 53,609 shares in the company, valued at $5,818,720.86. This represents a 8.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Helen Torley sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.40, for a total value of $2,188,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 767,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $83,995,132. The trade was a 2.54% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 124,226 shares of company stock valued at $13,370,893 in the last three months. 2.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HALO. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Halozyme Therapeutics in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its stake in Halozyme Therapeutics by 98.0% in the third quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 303 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. MidFirst Bank bought a new stake in Halozyme Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Halozyme Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in Halozyme Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

Halozyme Therapeutics Company Profile

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on developing drug-delivery technologies and medicines. Its ENHANZE platform uses a recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme, rHuPH20, to temporarily modify tissue under the skin and help enable the subcutaneous administration of certain biologic medicines that might otherwise require intravenous infusion. Halozyme licenses ENHANZE to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners, which use the technology in their own products. The company also markets Hylenex recombinant, a hyaluronidase product used to facilitate the dispersion and absorption of other injected medicines and fluids.