Royalty Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:RPRX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts unanimously rate Royalty Pharma “Buy”: All eight firms covering the stock recommend buying it, with an average 12-month price target of $61.29. Recent targets range from $62 to $68.
• Insiders have been selling shares: Company insiders sold 398,197 shares worth approximately $22.5 million over the past 90 days, including a 150,000-share sale by EVP Christopher Hite under a pre-arranged trading plan.
• RPRX offers a dividend and recently beat EPS estimates: Royalty Pharma reported quarterly EPS of $1.32 versus the $1.27 consensus estimate and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.235 per share, representing a 1.6% yield.

Royalty Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:RPRX - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Buy" by the eight research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $61.2857.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Royalty Pharma from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Royalty Pharma from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Royalty Pharma from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $66.00 price objective on shares of Royalty Pharma in a report on Thursday, August 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Christopher Hite sold 150,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.40, for a total transaction of $8,160,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 559,399 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,431,305.60. This represents a 21.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Marshall Urist sold 9,099 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.88, for a total transaction of $508,452.12. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 398,197 shares of company stock worth $22,513,280 in the last 90 days. 18.84% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Royalty Pharma

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RPRX. Barton Investment Management acquired a new position in Royalty Pharma during the 1st quarter worth approximately $905,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Royalty Pharma by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 172,418 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $6,662,000 after buying an additional 24,048 shares in the last quarter. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new stake in shares of Royalty Pharma during the fourth quarter worth $4,923,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Royalty Pharma by 5,266.7% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,150 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $933,000 after buying an additional 23,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in shares of Royalty Pharma by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 315,686 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $12,198,000 after buying an additional 56,061 shares in the last quarter. 54.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Royalty Pharma Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RPRX traded down $0.72 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $58.21. 202,393 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,441,598. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a current ratio of 2.80. Royalty Pharma has a 52 week low of $34.63 and a 52 week high of $64.38. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $59.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.05.

Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.05. Royalty Pharma had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 32.14%.The business had revenue of $674.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $758.93 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Royalty Pharma will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Royalty Pharma Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were issued a dividend of $0.235 per share. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. Royalty Pharma's dividend payout ratio is 64.83%.

Royalty Pharma Company Profile

Royalty Pharma plc is a biopharmaceutical royalty company that provides funding to life sciences companies in exchange for rights to receive future royalty payments from commercialized or late-stage therapies. Rather than developing and marketing medicines itself, the company invests in pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovations and seeks to generate income from the resulting royalty streams.

Its portfolio is linked to a range of therapies across areas including oncology, immunology, neuroscience, rare diseases and other specialty markets.

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