Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) Now Covered by Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC began coverage on shares of Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS - Get Free Report) in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set a "buy" rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC's price target suggests a potential upside of 45.87% from the company's previous close.

ALKS has been the topic of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Alkermes from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Alkermes from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Alkermes from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of Alkermes in a report on Monday, April 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $38.85.

Alkermes Trading Up 2.0%

NASDAQ:ALKS traded up $0.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $30.85. 1,753,399 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,766,675. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.82. Alkermes has a fifty-two week low of $22.90 and a fifty-two week high of $36.45. The company has a market capitalization of $5.09 billion, a PE ratio of 14.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.51.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.32 by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $306.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $307.53 million. Alkermes had a net margin of 23.57% and a return on equity of 30.80%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 12.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Alkermes will post 1.31 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alkermes

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ALKS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Alkermes by 488.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,234,995 shares of the company's stock valued at $172,860,000 after buying an additional 4,345,523 shares during the last quarter. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Alkermes during the fourth quarter worth approximately $70,462,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Alkermes during the first quarter worth approximately $66,689,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Alkermes during the fourth quarter worth approximately $56,684,000. Finally, RTW Investments LP increased its position in Alkermes by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 7,557,835 shares of the company's stock worth $217,363,000 after purchasing an additional 903,802 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.21% of the company's stock.

About Alkermes

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.