Baker BROS. Advisors LP Acquires 1,368,869 Shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $CRNX

Key Points

• Baker BROS. Advisors LP significantly increased its stake in Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, boosting holdings by 488.9% in the fourth quarter to 1,648,869 shares, worth about $76.8 million.
• Other major institutional investors also added to their positions, and institutional ownership now stands at 98.51% of the company.
• Analysts remain mixed but generally positive: the stock carries a Moderate Buy consensus with an average price target of $76.13, while recent earnings showed a small EPS miss but strong revenue growth year over year.

Baker BROS. Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRNX - Free Report) by 488.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,648,869 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,368,869 shares during the period. Baker BROS. Advisors LP owned about 1.61% of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals worth $76,755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Crinetics Pharmaceuticals by 44.3% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,381,991 shares of the company's stock worth $349,110,000 after buying an additional 2,574,683 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Crinetics Pharmaceuticals by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 6,933,098 shares of the company's stock worth $322,736,000 after buying an additional 1,163,000 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Crinetics Pharmaceuticals by 279.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,258,722 shares of the company's stock worth $52,426,000 after buying an additional 926,765 shares during the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Crinetics Pharmaceuticals by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 1,476,325 shares of the company's stock worth $68,723,000 after buying an additional 625,779 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its stake in Crinetics Pharmaceuticals by 122.7% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 908,192 shares of the company's stock worth $42,276,000 after buying an additional 500,470 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals from $87.00 to $84.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and set a $95.00 target price on shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, April 20th. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and set a $81.00 target price on shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Sunday, May 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $76.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Crinetics Pharmaceuticals news, insider Jeff E. Knight sold 85,163 shares of Crinetics Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.10, for a total value of $3,415,036.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 105,289 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,222,088.90. The trade was a 44.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company's stock.

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 2.1%

CRNX opened at $35.75 on Thursday. Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.83 and a 1-year high of $57.99. The company has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.97 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $37.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.41.

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CRNX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($1.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.22) by ($0.01). Crinetics Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 2,747.18% and a negative return on equity of 43.96%. The company had revenue of $10.73 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.51 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($1.04) earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2873.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -4.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Crinetics Pharmaceuticals

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for rare endocrine diseases. The company's proprietary platform leverages insights into hormone receptor signaling to design small-molecule candidates that address conditions driven by dysregulated hormone activity. Crinetics' research efforts center on targeting somatostatin, vasopressin and other GPCR-mediated pathways with orally bioavailable molecules intended to improve patient convenience and adherence.

The company's lead product candidate, paltusotine (formerly CRN04777), is a selective, non-peptide somatostatin receptor type 2 agonist being evaluated for the treatment of acromegaly and carcinoid syndrome diarrhea.

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