Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Earns Buy Rating from HC Wainwright

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $45.00 price target on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 52.28% from the stock’s current price.

MPLT has been the subject of several other reports. Craig Hallum started coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $48.00 target price for the company. Canaccord Genuity Group began coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $36.89.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Performance

MPLT opened at $29.55 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.72. The company has a fifty day moving average of $25.75 and a 200 day moving average of $20.29. Maplight Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $12.24 and a fifty-two week high of $33.28.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.91) by ($0.43). On average, equities research analysts forecast that Maplight Therapeutics will post -4.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Maplight Therapeutics news, insider Erin Pennock Foff sold 24,052 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total value of $691,735.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 350,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,080,293.72. This trade represents a 6.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total transaction of $3,214,809.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,394,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,905,415.86. The trade was a 7.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 495,244 shares of company stock worth $14,079,461. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $70,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $93,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $172,000. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $205,000.

Maplight Therapeutics Company Profile

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.