Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Price Target Raised to $178.00

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) had its price target hoisted by BMO Capital Markets from $112.00 to $178.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings raised Protagonist Therapeutics from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $118.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $151.00 to $153.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $140.53.

Protagonist Therapeutics Trading Down 1.5%

NASDAQ PTGX opened at $154.94 on Monday. Protagonist Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $54.50 and a 12 month high of $160.81. The stock has a market cap of $10.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 150.43 and a beta of 1.78. The company’s 50 day moving average is $132.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $109.36.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $213.47 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $212.03 million. Protagonist Therapeutics had a net margin of 29.40% and a return on equity of 12.03%. Protagonist Therapeutics’s revenue was up 3746.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Protagonist Therapeutics

In related news, Director William D. Waddill sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.94, for a total transaction of $1,061,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $922,880.50. This trade represents a 53.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 65,761 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.11, for a total transaction of $9,805,622.71. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 523,478 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,055,804.58. This represents a 11.16% 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 sold 127,000 shares of company stock worth $17,818,139 in the last three months. Insiders own 5.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,263,535,000. Johnson & Johnson bought a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $300,220,852,000. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $261,039,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 140.7% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,649,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $231,355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,549,160 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $162,357,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: PTGX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel, orally administered peptide-based therapies for immune-mediated and other serious diseases. The company leverages its proprietary Peptide 2.0 platform to design peptides that target G protein–coupled receptors and cytokine receptors, with the goal of combining the potency of biologics with the convenience of oral administration. Protagonist’s approach aims to address unmet medical needs in areas where injectable therapies have been the standard of care.

Among its lead programs is PTG-100, an oral α4β7 integrin antagonist intended to block leukocyte migration to the gut in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.