Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) Cut to Hold at Zacks Research

Key Points

• Elanco Animal Health has been downgraded from a "strong-buy" to a "hold" rating by Zacks Research, indicating a shift in analyst sentiment.
• Despite the downgrade, other analysts have varied opinions, with Piper Sandler raising the target price from $12.00 to $18.00 and assigning a "neutral" rating.
• Elanco reported a quarterly EPS of $0.26, exceeding the consensus estimate and showing a 4.8% increase in revenue compared to the previous year.

Zacks Research downgraded shares of Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, August 20th,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on ELAN. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Elanco Animal Health from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Elanco Animal Health from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Elanco Animal Health from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Elanco Animal Health currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $17.33.

Elanco Animal Health Stock Performance

Elanco Animal Health stock traded up $0.68 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $18.58. The company had a trading volume of 12,250,407 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,484,978. The company has a 50 day moving average of $15.24 and a 200-day moving average of $12.56. The firm has a market cap of $9.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.60, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 1.66. Elanco Animal Health has a 52 week low of $8.02 and a 52 week high of $18.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.06. Elanco Animal Health had a net margin of 9.68% and a return on equity of 7.04%. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.19 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Elanco Animal Health has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.120-0.160 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 0.850-0.91 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Elanco Animal Health will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Elanco Animal Health

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Allworth Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 791.7% in the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,354 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 2,090 shares in the last quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 92.2% in the 1st quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,860 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,852 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 65.9% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 4,382 shares of the company's stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 1,740 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.48% of the company's stock.

Elanco Animal Health Company Profile

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands.