Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Decreases Stock Position in BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc cut its holdings in BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) by 8.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 61,868 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 5,995 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc’s holdings in BioMarin Pharmaceutical were worth $4,067,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its holdings in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 38,738 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,546,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,022 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $330,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 596 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 27.5% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,095 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. 98.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BMRN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on BioMarin Pharmaceutical from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Scotiabank raised their target price on BioMarin Pharmaceutical from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com raised BioMarin Pharmaceutical from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on BioMarin Pharmaceutical from $124.00 to $104.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised BioMarin Pharmaceutical from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $98.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $93.45.

Insider Transactions at BioMarin Pharmaceutical

In other news, CAO Erin Burkhart sold 1,295 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.52, for a total transaction of $92,618.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 16,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,212,621.60. This represents a 7.10% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,912 shares of company stock valued at $202,244. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Trading Down 1.8%

BMRN opened at $58.70 on Thursday. BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. has a 12 month low of $52.93 and a 12 month high of $94.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 5.33 and a quick ratio of 2.62. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $64.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.21.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The biotechnology company reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $747.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $711.05 million. BioMarin Pharmaceutical had a return on equity of 9.91% and a net margin of 14.96%. Sell-side analysts expect that BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Profile

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc develops and commercializes therapies for people with serious and life-threatening rare diseases and medical conditions. Its commercial products include Vimizim, an enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) IV type A, a lysosomal storage disorder; Naglazyme, a recombinant form of N-acetylgalactosamine 4-sulfatase for patients with MPS VI; and Kuvan, a proprietary synthetic oral form of 6R-BH4 that is used to treat patients with phenylketonuria (PKU), an inherited metabolic disease.