Legal & General Group Plc Sells 27,332 Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $REGN

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc cut its stake in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, selling 27,332 shares and leaving it with 743,027 shares valued at about $573.5 million.
• Several analysts turned more cautious on REGN, including Citigroup’s downgrade from buy to neutral and multiple price-target cuts; the stock’s consensus rating remains Moderate Buy with an average target of $792.65.
• Regeneron reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, with EPS of $9.47 and revenue of $3.61 billion, and it also പ്രഖ്യാപed a quarterly dividend of $0.94 per share payable June 4.

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:REGN - Free Report) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 743,027 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 27,332 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.71% of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals worth $573,520,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 52.2% in the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 271 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $209,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 140.0% in the fourth quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc. now owns 31,153 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $24,046,000 after acquiring an additional 18,172 shares in the last quarter. Private Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $270,000. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 227,779 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $175,816,000 after acquiring an additional 20,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allium Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $211,000. 83.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Regeneron Pharmaceuticals news, Director Arthur F. Ryan sold 100 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $705.24, for a total value of $70,524.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,343,815.72. The trade was a 0.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 6.97% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

REGN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $923.00 to $917.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Citigroup downgraded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $900.00 to $700.00 in a report on Monday, May 18th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $900.00 to $730.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $762.00 to $707.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Leerink Partners restated a "market perform" rating and issued a $641.00 price objective (down from $792.00) on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, May 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $792.65.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $638.88 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $67.54 billion, a PE ratio of 15.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 2.96 and a current ratio of 3.57. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $729.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $745.72. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $476.49 and a one year high of $821.11.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $9.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $8.91 by $0.56. The business had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.48 billion. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 29.65% and a return on equity of 13.16%. The firm's revenue was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $8.22 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 37.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be issued a $0.94 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $3.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals's payout ratio is currently 9.16%.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Profile

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc NASDAQ: REGN is a U.S.-based biotechnology company founded in 1988 and headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. It focuses on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing medicines for serious medical conditions. The company combines laboratory research, clinical development and in-house manufacturing to advance a pipeline of biologic therapies across multiple therapeutic areas.

Regeneron is known for its proprietary drug discovery technologies, including its VelocImmune platform, which is used to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies.

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