Kodiak Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:KOD) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Kodiak Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:KOD) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.1429.

KOD has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Kodiak Sciences from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Kodiak Sciences in a research report on Friday, March 27th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Kodiak Sciences from $50.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Chardan Capital raised Kodiak Sciences from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Monday, May 11th.

Institutional Trading of Kodiak Sciences

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KOD. Baker BROS. Advisors LP lifted its position in Kodiak Sciences by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 19,919,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,940,000 after purchasing an additional 2,608,696 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Kodiak Sciences by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,313,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,683,000 after purchasing an additional 363,103 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP acquired a new stake in shares of Kodiak Sciences in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $57,955,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its stake in shares of Kodiak Sciences by 55.1% in the second quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 2,055,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,668,000 after purchasing an additional 730,000 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Kodiak Sciences by 108.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,732,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,427,000 after buying an additional 899,572 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.06% of the company’s stock.

Kodiak Sciences Stock Performance

NASDAQ KOD opened at $31.06 on Wednesday. Kodiak Sciences has a one year low of $3.43 and a one year high of $47.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of -7.45 and a beta of 2.21.

Kodiak Sciences (NASDAQ:KOD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.94) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.93) by ($0.01). Equities analysts forecast that Kodiak Sciences will post -3.89 earnings per share for the current year.

About Kodiak Sciences

Kodiak Sciences, Inc is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that focuses on the discovery and development of novel therapies for retinal diseases. The company’s proprietary technology centers on antibody biopolymer conjugates (ABCs), which are designed to extend durability, enhance tissue penetration and improve the safety profile of existing therapeutic modalities. Kodiak’s research and development efforts target conditions such as wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) and other serious ophthalmic disorders.

The lead product candidate in Kodiak’s pipeline is KSI-301, an anti-VEGF antibody biopolymer conjugate administered via intravitreal injection.