Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock Moved Up to “Strong-Buy” by Zacks Research

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $175.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. HC Wainwright raised their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $186.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Protagonist Therapeutics from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Protagonist Therapeutics from $153.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and sixteen have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $154.44.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

Protagonist Therapeutics stock opened at $136.55 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $145.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $124.91. Protagonist Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $73.08 and a 1-year high of $160.81. The company has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a PE ratio of 132.31 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Protagonist Therapeutics

In other Protagonist Therapeutics news, 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 transaction of $9,805,622.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 523,478 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,055,804.58. This trade represents a 11.16% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Asif Ali sold 58,629 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.78, for a total value of $8,312,419.62. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 59,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,365,445.34. This represents a 49.84% 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. Insiders sold 283,629 shares of company stock valued at $41,443,786 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 5.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Protagonist Therapeutics

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,263,535,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,891,527 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,866,000 after acquiring an additional 241,546 shares during the last quarter. Johnson & Johnson acquired a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth $300,220,852. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth $261,039,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $162,357,000. 98.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ:PTGX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing peptide-based medicines for chronic immune-mediated and hematologic diseases. The company uses its proprietary technology platform to design peptides intended to selectively interact with disease-relevant biological targets.

Protagonist’s pipeline includes icotrokinra, formerly known as JNJ-2113, an investigational oral peptide that selectively targets the interleukin-23 receptor.