Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $27.40, but opened at $29.45. Maplight Therapeutics shares last traded at $29.55, with a volume of 5,411 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MPLT has been the topic of several recent research reports. HC Wainwright initiated coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, May 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price objective on the stock. Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, March 21st. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated 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 report on Tuesday, April 7th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $34.43.

Maplight Therapeutics Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.27. The stock has a market cap of $1.24 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.73.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 26th. The company reported ($2.47) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.05) by ($1.42). As a group, research analysts expect that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Vishwas Setia sold 10,564 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.24, for a total transaction of $298,327.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 356,256 shares in the company, valued at $10,060,669.44. This represents a 2.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider James Woodruff Lillie sold 24,811 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total value of $713,564.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 243,450 shares in the company, valued at $7,001,622. This trade represents a 9.25% decrease in their position. 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. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $441,168 and sold 403,561 shares valued at $11,350,039. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Strs Ohio bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $53,000. Blue Owl Capital Holdings LP bought a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at $5,745,000. Geode Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at $6,835,000. Seven Grand Managers LLC acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth $1,756,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth about $34,026,000.

About Maplight Therapeutics

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.