Brokerages Set Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) PT at $336.57

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) has been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the nine research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $335.75.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LGND. Leerink Partners started coverage on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday. They set an “outperform” rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $340.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $255.00 to $332.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price target on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jason Aryeh sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $1,125,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 102,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,645,000. The trade was a 4.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.99, for a total value of $1,444,950.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 41,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,997,130.86. The trade was a 10.75% 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 have sold a total of 71,976 shares of company stock valued at $20,075,721 in the last ninety days. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ranger Investment Management L.P. acquired a new position in Ligand Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $81,424,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth $41,429,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 22.5% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 10,358 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,274,000 after purchasing an additional 1,900 shares during the period. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $75,000. Finally, Balefire LLC bought a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $330,000. Institutional investors own 91.28% of the company’s stock.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of LGND stock opened at $294.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.13. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $149.51 and a 12 month high of $326.63. The company has a quick ratio of 20.95, a current ratio of 31.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $291.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $238.57.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $63.69 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $61.30 million. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 67.88% and a return on equity of 20.06%. The company’s revenue was up 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.60 EPS. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.000-9.500 EPS. Research analysts expect that Ligand Pharmaceuticals will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

About Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that acquires, develops and out-licenses proprietary technologies designed to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies discover and develop novel medicines. Operating primarily through its research services and royalty-generating businesses, Ligand focuses on building a diversified portfolio of technology platforms and partnering with industry leaders to advance therapeutic candidates across multiple disease areas.

The company’s product offerings center around several core platforms.