Zacks Research Upgrades AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) to Strong-Buy

AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

ANAB has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays reduced their target price on AnaptysBio from $79.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on AnaptysBio from $95.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Truist Financial upgraded AnaptysBio to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on AnaptysBio from $56.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of AnaptysBio in a report on Monday, March 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AnaptysBio presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.18.

AnaptysBio Price Performance

Shares of AnaptysBio stock opened at $69.49 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -133.64 and a beta of 0.79. AnaptysBio has a 52-week low of $11.40 and a 52-week high of $72.36. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.05.

AnaptysBio (NASDAQ:ANAB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, March 3rd. The biotechnology company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.69. AnaptysBio had a negative return on equity of 1,101.24% and a negative net margin of 5.64%.The firm had revenue of $108.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.09 million. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AnaptysBio will post -3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AnaptysBio declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, March 27th that allows the company to repurchase $100,000.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the biotechnology company to repurchase up to 5,352,316.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AnaptysBio news, CEO Daniel Faga sold 17,679 shares of AnaptysBio stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.61, for a total value of $1,089,203.19. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 495,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,556,403.65. The trade was a 3.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Eric J. Loumeau sold 10,000 shares of AnaptysBio stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.00, for a total value of $540,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 12,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $693,090. This represents a 43.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 48,324 shares of company stock valued at $2,787,594 in the last three months. Company insiders own 33.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AnaptysBio

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of AnaptysBio by 5,864.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 835 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of AnaptysBio by 54.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,340 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of AnaptysBio by 24.3% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,345 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AnaptysBio by 950.0% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,428 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,292 shares during the period. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its position in shares of AnaptysBio by 940.8% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383 shares during the period.

AnaptysBio Company Profile

AnaptysBio, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of therapeutic antibody product candidates in immunology and inflammation. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Diego, California, AnaptysBio leverages a proprietary somatic hypermutation platform to rapidly generate and refine human antibodies with optimized efficacy and safety profiles. The company’s technology is designed to accelerate target validation and candidate selection across a range of immune-mediated conditions.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple clinical-stage programs addressing dermatological and inflammatory disorders.