Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Trading 7.8% Higher - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• Maplight Therapeutics rose 7.8% to about $12.24, although trading volume was 60% below its average. The stock remains well below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages of $25.24 and $24.25.
• Analyst views are mixed: the consensus rating is “Moderate Buy” with a $29.67 price target, but UBS downgraded the stock to “neutral” and cut its target to $13, while other firms maintain targets as high as $36.
• The company exceeded quarterly loss expectations, reporting an adjusted EPS loss of $1.32 versus the expected $1.40 loss, but analysts still project a full-year loss of $5.12 per share. Insider activity was mixed, with a director buying shares while another insider sold shares under a pre-arranged trading plan.

Shares of Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT - Get Free Report) rose 7.8% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $11.96 and last traded at $12.2430. 185,395 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 60% from the average daily volume of 459,359 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.36.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on MPLT. Raymond James Financial set a $31.00 price objective on Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Maplight Therapeutics from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Maplight Therapeutics from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $29.67.

Maplight Therapeutics Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.25. The firm has a market cap of $579.89 million and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.30.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. Blue Owl Capital Holdings LP bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,745,000. Geode Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,835,000. Seven Grand Managers LLC bought a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,756,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,026,000.

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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