Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday. The stock had previously closed at $137.34, but opened at $141.81. Protagonist Therapeutics shares last traded at $139.5560, with a volume of 72,574 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on PTGX shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 22nd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $175.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Protagonist Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.13.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $9.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 135.49 and a beta of 1.80. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $144.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $120.46.

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

Insider Activity at Protagonist Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Dinsesh Patel sold 7,278 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $144.10, for a total transaction of $1,048,759.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 522,968 shares in the company, valued at $75,359,688.80. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 225,000 shares of company stock worth $33,131,367. Insiders own 5.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Protagonist Therapeutics

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter worth about $1,263,535,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,891,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,866,000 after acquiring an additional 241,546 shares during the period. Johnson & Johnson bought a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $300,220,852. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $261,039,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,452,928 shares of the company’s stock worth $126,920,000 after purchasing an additional 36,282 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing peptide-based medicines for immune-mediated diseases and hematologic disorders. The company uses its peptide discovery and development platform to create therapies designed to selectively modulate disease-related biological pathways.

Protagonist’s pipeline has included icotrokinra (also known as JNJ-2113), an oral peptide that targets the interleukin-23 receptor and is being developed for inflammatory and immune-mediated conditions in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson.