Insider Selling: Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) CEO Sells 54,174 Shares

Key Points

• CEO Dinesh Ph. Patel sold 54,174 PTGX shares for approximately $7.9 million at an average price of $145.87 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing his stake by 9.39% to 522,968 shares.
• Protagonist Therapeutics recently exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $2.29 in EPS and $213.47 million in revenue, with revenue up 3,746.8% year over year.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive: 16 analysts rate the stock a Buy and two rate it Hold, producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $147.13.

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX - Get Free Report) CEO Dinesh Ph Patel sold 54,174 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $145.87, for a total value of $7,902,361.38. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 522,968 shares of the company's stock, valued at $76,285,342.16. The trade was a 9.39% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Protagonist Therapeutics Trading Up 0.0%

PTGX traded up $0.07 during trading on Thursday, hitting $145.16. 543,127 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 483,614. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $57.53 and a 1 year high of $160.81. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $142.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.73. The firm has a market cap of $9.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 140.93 and a beta of 1.80.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.29 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $213.47 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $212.03 million. Protagonist Therapeutics had a net margin of 29.40% and a return on equity of 12.03%. Protagonist Therapeutics's revenue was up 3746.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Protagonist Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PTGX. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $536,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in Protagonist Therapeutics by 2.5% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 14,085 shares of the company's stock worth $1,727,000 after acquiring an additional 347 shares during the period. Nykredit A S bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter worth about $296,000. Amundi lifted its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 87.0% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,692 shares of the company's stock worth $943,000 after acquiring an additional 3,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,373,000. 98.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PTGX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wedbush increased their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $118.00 to $173.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 22nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics from $178.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Protagonist Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $147.13.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing peptide-based medicines for immune-mediated diseases and hematologic disorders. The company uses its peptide discovery and development platform to create therapies designed to selectively modulate disease-related biological pathways.

Protagonist's pipeline has included icotrokinra (also known as JNJ-2113), an oral peptide that targets the interleukin-23 receptor and is being developed for inflammatory and immune-mediated conditions in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson.

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