Insider Selling: Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) Insider Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares on May 1 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan at an average $231.31 for $1.156M, cutting his stake by 10.78% to 41,382 shares (≈$9.57M); he also sold 5,000 shares in April and March.
• Strong quarterly results: Ligand reported quarterly EPS of $2.02 (beating estimates by $0.56) with revenue of $59.67M, up 39.5% year-over-year, and set FY2026 guidance of $8.00–$9.00 EPS.
• Market and analyst view: LGND trades near $228 with a $4.58B market cap and a P/E of ~39, and carries a consensus "Moderate Buy" from analysts with an average price target of $256.29.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND - Get Free Report) insider Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.31, for a total transaction of $1,156,550.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 41,382 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,572,070.42. The trade was a 10.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Andrew Reardon also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, April 1st, Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.24, for a total transaction of $1,006,200.00.
• On Wednesday, March 4th, Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.35, for a total transaction of $1,031,750.00.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of LGND stock traded up $0.92 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $228.36. 221,174 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 223,794. Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a 12 month low of $98.89 and a 12 month high of $247.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $209.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 21.98 and a current ratio of 22.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a PE ratio of 39.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.20.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The biotechnology company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.56. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 46.42% and a return on equity of 13.86%. The firm had revenue of $59.67 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.59 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 39.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2026 guidance at 8.000-9.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 5.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LGND shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $276.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $235.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $275.00 to $277.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $256.29.

Institutional Trading of Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LGND. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 86.3% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 149 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 85.8% in the 3rd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 210 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that acquires, develops and out-licenses proprietary technologies designed to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies discover and develop novel medicines. Operating primarily through its research services and royalty-generating businesses, Ligand focuses on building a diversified portfolio of technology platforms and partnering with industry leaders to advance therapeutic candidates across multiple disease areas.

The company's product offerings center around several core platforms.

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