Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, acquires and licenses technologies designed to help pharmaceutical companies discover, develop and commercialize medicines. Rather than focusing primarily on building a large portfolio of internally marketed drugs, Ligand operates an asset-light business model centered on partnerships, licensing agreements, royalties and other economic interests in partnered products.

The company’s principal technology is Captisol, a proprietary modified cyclodextrin designed to improve the solubility, stability and delivery of certain drug compounds. Captisol has been incorporated into a number of pharmaceutical products, including Kyprolis and Evomela. Ligand also has historically supported drug discovery and development through antibody and protein-expression technologies and provides capital or other resources to selected biotechnology partners in exchange for licensing rights, royalties or milestone payments.

Founded in 1987 and headquartered in San Diego, California, Ligand formerly pursued a more traditional pharmaceutical research and development strategy before shifting toward its current partnership-focused model. Its technologies and royalty interests support medicines developed and sold by pharmaceutical companies in the United States and international markets, allowing Ligand to participate in commercial products without directly managing large-scale global sales operations.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $271.22 to $278.74
• 50-Day Range: $275.20 to $322.61
• 52-Week Range: $163.45 to $326.63
• Volume: 299,041 shs
• Average Volume: 176,718 shs
• Market Capitalization: $5.49 billion
• P/E Ratio: 29.43
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Price Target: $335.75
• Consensus Rating: Buy

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Ligand Pharmaceuticals scored higher than 84% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 103rd out of 903 stocks in the healthcare sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.3 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Buy

Consensus Rating

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has received a consensus rating of Buy. The company's average rating score is 3.00, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 9 buy ratings, no hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $335.75, representing about 22.0% upside from its current price of $275.20.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has been the subject of 8 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 56.52%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Ligand Pharmaceuticals are expected to grow by 56.52% in the coming year, from $5.29 to $8.28 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Ligand Pharmaceuticals is 29.43, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 38.86.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Ligand Pharmaceuticals is 29.43, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Healthcare sector average P/E ratio of about 273.87.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a PEG Ratio of 2.22. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a P/B Ratio of 5.33. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

13.18% of the float of Ligand Pharmaceuticals has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 14.12, which indicates bearish sentiment.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Ligand Pharmaceuticals has recently increased by 1.34%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing.

Dividend

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: N/A

Dividend Yield

Ligand Pharmaceuticals does not currently pay a dividend.

Dividend Growth

Ligand Pharmaceuticals does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.2 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.14

News Sentiment

Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a news sentiment score of 1.14. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.78 average news sentiment score of Healthcare companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 9 news articles for Ligand Pharmaceuticals this week, compared to 5 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 3 people have searched for LGND on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -40% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

Only 2 people have added Ligand Pharmaceuticals to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -33% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.6 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Ligand Pharmaceuticals insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $16,114,948.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

5.60% of the stock of Ligand Pharmaceuticals is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

91.28% of the stock of Ligand Pharmaceuticals is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 8/06/2026
• Today: 9/16/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/05/2026
• Investor Day 2026: 12/08/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Healthcare
• Industry: Biotechnology
• Sub-Industry: Biotechnology
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:LGND
• CIK: 886163
• Web: www.ligand.com
• Phone: (858) 550-7500
• Fax: 858-550-1826
• Employees: 47
• Year Founded: 1987

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Ligand Pharmaceuticals: $335.75
• High Price Target: $388.00
• Low Price Target: $220.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +22.0%
• Consensus Rating: Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 3.00
• Research Coverage: 9 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $9.35
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 29.43
• Forward P/E Ratio: 52.02
• P/E Growth: 2.22
• Net Income: $124.45 million
• Net Margins: 67.88%
• Pretax Margin: 81.90%
• Return on Equity: 20.06%
• Return on Assets: 11.68%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 1.16
• Current Ratio: 31.18
• Quick Ratio: 30.96

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $268.09 million
• Price / Sales: 20.47
• Cash Flow: $7.80 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 35.28
• Book Value: $51.68 per share
• Price / Book: 5.33

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 19,940,000
• Free Float: 18,820,000
• Market Cap: $5.49 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 1.11