Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $2.07 EPS

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $2.07, Zacks reports. Protagonist Therapeutics had a return on equity of 34.68% and a net margin of 52.76%.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock opened at $38.75 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.57 and a beta of 2.22. Protagonist Therapeutics has a one year low of $24.22 and a one year high of $48.89.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PTGX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, December 6th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $62.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price target on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Protagonist Therapeutics news, insider Suneel Gupta sold 103,437 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.04, for a total value of $4,762,239.48. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 256,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,794,250.96. The trade was a 28.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 78,520 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.96, for a total value of $3,687,299.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 435,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,437,367.68. This represents a 15.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 213,316 shares of company stock valued at $9,816,345 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops peptide-based drugs for hematology and blood disorders, and inflammatory and immunomodulatory diseases. It is developing Rusfertide (PTG-300), an injectable hepcidin mimetic that completed phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of polycythemia vera and other blood disorders; and JNJ-2113, an orally delivered investigational drug to block biological pathways that completed phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis; and PN-943, an orally delivered, gut-restricted alpha 4 beta 7 specific integrin antagonist completed a phase 2 clinical trials in patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.