Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock Has Average Target Price of $158.19 According to Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts are broadly bullish: Protagonist Therapeutics has a consensus “Buy” rating from 18 firms, with an average 12-month price target of $158.19. Goldman Sachs raised its rating to “Buy” and target to $186, while Wedbush lifted its target to $173.
• The stock opened at $140.32, compared with a 52-week range of $74.03 to $160.81, and the company recently exceeded quarterly expectations with earnings of $2.29 per share and revenue of $213.47 million.
• Institutional ownership is high at 98.63%, including major new stakes from BlackRock and Johnson & Johnson. Meanwhile, insiders sold 283,629 shares worth approximately $41.4 million over the last quarter, including sales by the CEO and CFO under pre-arranged trading plans.

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Buy" from the eighteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $158.19.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Protagonist Therapeutics from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $186.00 in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $118.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Johnson Rice set a $165.00 target price on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Friday, July 17th. Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Friday.

Protagonist Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ:PTGX opened at $140.32 on Tuesday. Protagonist Therapeutics has a one year low of $74.03 and a one year high of $160.81. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $144.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $114.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 136.23 and a beta of 1.53.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.02. Protagonist Therapeutics had a return on equity of 12.03% and a net margin of 29.40%. The company had revenue of $213.47 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $212.03 million. Protagonist Therapeutics's revenue for the quarter was up 3746.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Protagonist Therapeutics will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Asif Ali sold 58,629 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 59,003 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,365,445.34. This represents a 49.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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. Also, CEO Dinesh V. Ph D. Patel sold 65,761 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.11, for a total transaction of $9,805,622.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 523,478 shares in the company, valued at $78,055,804.58. The trade was a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 283,629 shares of company stock valued at $41,443,786. Company insiders own 5.19% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,263,535,000. Johnson & Johnson purchased a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $300,220,852. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $261,039,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $162,357,000. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $117,783,000. 98.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Protagonist Therapeutics Company Profile

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing peptide-based medicines for immune-mediated and hematologic diseases. The company uses its proprietary peptide technology platform to design therapies intended to act on specific biological pathways and receptors.

Its leading program is icotrokinra, also known as JNJ-2113, an oral, targeted inhibitor of the interleukin-23 receptor being developed in collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals for inflammatory and immune-mediated conditions, including psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases.

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