Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Upgraded by BMO Capital Markets to Strong-Buy Rating

Key Points

• BMO Capital Markets upgraded Maplight Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating, adding to a generally bullish analyst backdrop for the stock.
• Analyst sentiment is mostly positive overall, with five Strong Buy ratings and ten Buy ratings; MarketBeat shows an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $40.09.
• Maplight Therapeutics reported a Q1 EPS loss of $1.34, wider than the expected loss of $0.91, while the stock recently traded around $37.44, near its 1-year high of $40.43.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT - Get Free Report) was upgraded by stock analysts at BMO Capital Markets to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on MPLT. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Wolfe Research raised Maplight Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Monday, July 13th. Lifesci Capital upgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $40.09.

Maplight Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ:MPLT opened at $37.44 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.60 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.91. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $31.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.69. Maplight Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $12.24 and a 1-year high of $40.43.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.91) by ($0.43). As a group, analysts expect that Maplight Therapeutics will post -5.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Maplight Therapeutics

In related news, insider Erin Pennock Foff sold 24,052 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total value of $691,735.52. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 350,497 shares in the company, valued at $10,080,293.72. The trade was a 6.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Jonathan Gillis sold 51,900 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.74, for a total transaction of $1,543,506.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 199,154 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,922,839.96. The trade was a 20.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 495,244 shares of company stock worth $14,079,461. Insiders own 3.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Maplight Therapeutics

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,113,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $7,622,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Maplight Therapeutics by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 39,465 shares of the company's stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 3,608 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,168,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. purchased a new position in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000.

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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