Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Reduce" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have a consensus “Reduce” rating on Pliant Therapeutics, with two sells, one hold and one buy; the average 1-year price target is $3.00.
• Pliant shares opened at $1.03 and remain near their 1-year low of $1.01, while the company reported a quarterly loss of $0.36 per share, missing estimates by $0.02.
• Institutional ownership is substantial at 97.3%, with several investors—including ADAR1 Capital, BlackRock and Monaco Asset Management—recently initiating positions.

Shares of Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Reduce" from the four brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $3.00.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on PLRX shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a report on Friday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen raised Pliant Therapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, September 26th.

Pliant Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of Pliant Therapeutics stock opened at $1.03 on Wednesday. Pliant Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $1.01 and a 1 year high of $1.95. The firm has a market cap of $63.78 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.69 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1.10 and a 200 day moving average of $1.17.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.34) by ($0.02). On average, equities analysts anticipate that Pliant Therapeutics will post -1.42 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pliant Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Monaco Asset Management SAM purchased a new stake in Pliant Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,210,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter worth about $1,312,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter worth approximately $6,281,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter worth approximately $611,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 77.2% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,852,842 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,335,000 after buying an additional 807,024 shares during the last quarter. 97.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for fibrotic diseases. The company uses its expertise in integrin biology to discover and develop medicines intended to address the underlying mechanisms that contribute to tissue scarring and organ dysfunction.

Pliant's leading investigational product is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule inhibitor designed to selectively target the alphaVbeta6 and alphaVbeta1 integrins. The therapy has been studied in conditions including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive lung disease, and primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease.

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