Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) Short Interest Up 32.1% in March

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,940,000 shares, a growth of 32.1% from the February 29th total of 3,740,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.5 days.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ RIGL traded down $0.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $1.34. 3,721,204 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,149,974. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $0.71 and a one year high of $1.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.18. The stock has a market cap of $235.01 million, a P/E ratio of -8.93 and a beta of 0.96.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rigel Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of RIGL. State Street Corp raised its stake in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 218.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,945,568 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $27,058,000 after buying an additional 16,421,362 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 517.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 1,948,291 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $2,299,000 after purchasing an additional 1,632,700 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 198.6% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 2,204,420 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $3,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,466,160 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 14.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,942,196 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $14,092,000 after purchasing an additional 1,463,026 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 209.2% in the second quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,937,924 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $2,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,311,254 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.23% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RIGL has been the subject of several analyst reports. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $15.00 price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $2.00 to $3.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. B. Riley reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $1.25 price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $3.00 to $4.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Rigel Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $5.05.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, engages in discovering, developing, and providing therapies that enhance the lives of patients with hematologic disorders and cancer. The company's commercialized products include Tavalisse, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia; Rezlidhia, a non-intensive monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test; and GAVRETO, a once daily, small molecule, oral, kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, as well as for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer.