Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) Stock Price Up 5.4% – Time to Buy?

Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) shot up 5.4% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $31.89 and last traded at $31.83. 1,094,950 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average session volume of 1,331,394 shares. The stock had previously closed at $30.21.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ALKS. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 price target on shares of Alkermes in a report on Friday, October 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Alkermes from $32.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $37.00 price objective (down from $38.00) on shares of Alkermes in a research note on Friday, October 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Alkermes from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Alkermes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Alkermes presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.00.

Alkermes Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 3.45 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The firm has a market cap of $5.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $29.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.05.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 5,208 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.15, for a total transaction of $151,813.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 60,703 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,769,492.45. This represents a 7.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Cato T. Laurencin sold 2,691 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.85, for a total value of $85,708.35. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $732,964.05. This represents a 10.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 147,738 shares of company stock worth $4,572,904 over the last 90 days. 4.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alkermes

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 14.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,884,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,507,000 after purchasing an additional 371,039 shares during the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 365.5% during the third quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,882,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,478,422 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 89.4% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 803,504 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,364,000 after purchasing an additional 379,240 shares during the last quarter. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Alkermes in the 3rd quarter worth about $16,126,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Alkermes by 108.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 423,931 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,867,000 after acquiring an additional 220,893 shares in the last quarter. 95.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Alkermes Company Profile

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.