Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus on Maplight Therapeutics, with 9 buy, 4 strong-buy, 3 hold, and 1 sell rating among 17 firms. The average 12-month price target is $29.67.
• Maplight reported quarterly EPS of -$1.32, beating the consensus estimate of -$1.40, while analysts expect a full-year EPS loss of approximately $5.12.
• The stock opened at $11.21, well below its 52-week high of $40.43. Institutional investors have recently established significant positions, while insider activity included a director’s purchase of 15,620 shares and an insider sale of 22,082 shares.

Shares of Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT - Get Free Report) have received an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $29.6667.

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Raymond James Financial set a $31.00 price objective on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Wall Street Zen raised Maplight Therapeutics from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an "equal weight" rating and issued a $21.00 target price (down from $34.00) on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Troy Cox purchased 15,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $9.52 per share, for a total transaction of $148,702.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 15,620 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $148,702.40. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider James Woodruff Lillie sold 22,082 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.54, for a total value of $276,908.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 202,380 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,537,845.20. This trade represents a 9.84% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 3.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MPLT. Fcpm Iii Services B.V. bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at about $56,672,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth about $49,154,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth about $34,026,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,741,000. Finally, Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at about $17,060,000.

Maplight Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of MPLT stock opened at $11.21 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $519.92 million and a P/E ratio of -0.26. Maplight Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $9.10 and a 52 week high of $40.43. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $25.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.29.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 13th. The company reported ($1.32) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.40) by $0.08. On average, analysts anticipate that Maplight Therapeutics will post -5.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Maplight Therapeutics Company Profile

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.

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