Castleark Management LLC Makes New Investment in Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. $PTGX

Castleark Management LLC purchased a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 50,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,199,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PTGX. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,263,535,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Protagonist Therapeutics by 27.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,413,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $472,832,000 after acquiring an additional 1,156,461 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Protagonist Therapeutics by 18.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,207,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $177,281,000 after purchasing an additional 500,924 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Protagonist Therapeutics by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,171,423 shares of the company’s stock worth $276,992,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,977 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Protagonist Therapeutics by 9.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,891,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,866,000 after purchasing an additional 241,546 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William D. Waddill sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.94, for a total transaction of $1,061,460.00. Following the sale, the director owned 7,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $922,880.50. This represents a 53.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 65,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.11, for a total value of $9,805,622.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 523,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $78,055,804.58. This trade represents a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 127,000 shares of company stock worth $17,818,139. Insiders own 5.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $151.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wedbush raised their target price on Protagonist Therapeutics from $118.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Johnson Rice set a $165.00 price target on Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $135.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $130.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Protagonist Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $140.53.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of PTGX opened at $150.59 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 146.21 and a beta of 1.78. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $54.50 and a one year high of $160.81. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $136.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $111.31.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.02. Protagonist Therapeutics had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 29.40%.The firm had revenue of $213.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $212.03 million. Protagonist Therapeutics’s quarterly revenue was up 3746.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. will post 4.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: PTGX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel, orally administered peptide-based therapies for immune-mediated and other serious diseases. The company leverages its proprietary Peptide 2.0 platform to design peptides that target G protein–coupled receptors and cytokine receptors, with the goal of combining the potency of biologics with the convenience of oral administration. Protagonist’s approach aims to address unmet medical needs in areas where injectable therapies have been the standard of care.

Among its lead programs is PTG-100, an oral ?4?7 integrin antagonist intended to block leukocyte migration to the gut in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.