Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock Keeps "Outperform" Rating at Leerink Partners

Key Points

• Leerink Partners reaffirmed its “outperform” rating on Protagonist Therapeutics and raised its price target to $190 from $150, implying 32.19% upside from the prior close.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive: 17 analysts rate PTGX a Buy and one rates it a Hold, producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $154.44.
• Protagonist reported quarterly EPS of $2.29 versus the $2.27 consensus and revenue of $213.47 million, up 3,746.8% year over year; however, insiders sold $41.4 million of shares over the past three months.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating restated by stock analysts at Leerink Partners in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $190.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $150.00. Leerink Partners' price target suggests a potential upside of 32.19% from the company's previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on PTGX. Wolfe Research reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $175.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. HC Wainwright upped their target price on Protagonist Therapeutics from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Wall Street Zen cut Protagonist Therapeutics from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Johnson Rice set a $165.00 target price on Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Protagonist Therapeutics presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $154.44.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PTGX opened at $143.73 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $9.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 139.55 and a beta of 1.53. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $145.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.85. Protagonist Therapeutics has a one year low of $65.75 and a one year high of $160.81.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $213.47 million for 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%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3746.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 4.22 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Protagonist Therapeutics news, CFO Asif Ali sold 58,629 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.78, for a total value of $8,312,419.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 59,003 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,365,445.34. This represents a 49.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Dinsesh Patel sold 7,278 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.10, for a total transaction of $1,048,759.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 522,968 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $75,359,688.80. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 283,629 shares of company stock worth $41,443,786 over the last three months. Insiders own 5.19% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Protagonist Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 13.2% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,518 shares of the company's stock valued at $496,000 after acquiring an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Protagonist Therapeutics by 442.5% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,398 shares of the company's stock valued at $338,000 after purchasing an additional 1,956 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $536,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 14,085 shares of the company's stock worth $1,727,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nykredit A S acquired a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $296,000. Institutional investors own 98.63% of the company's stock.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc NASDAQ: PTGX is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing peptide-based medicines for chronic immune-mediated and hematologic diseases. The company uses its proprietary technology platform to design peptides intended to selectively interact with disease-relevant biological targets.

Protagonist's pipeline includes icotrokinra, formerly known as JNJ-2113, an investigational oral peptide that selectively targets the interleukin-23 receptor.

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