Short Interest in Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNTL) Grows By 22.2%

Key Points

• Short interest rose 22.2% in April to 5,204,555 shares (about 7.5% of shares short) with a short-interest ratio of 0.7 days based on average volume.
• Insider selling noted: Vincent Vultaggio sold 29,951 shares in February (a 16.04% reduction in his stake); insiders have sold 46,617 shares in the last 90 days and now own just 1.90% of the company.
• Zentalis reported a quarterly EPS of -$0.49, missing estimates; the stock trades near $3.96 with a market cap of about $281M and carries a consensus "Hold" rating with a $5.83 price target amid mixed analyst views.

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNTL - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totaling 5,204,555 shares, a growth of 22.2% from the March 31st total of 4,260,634 shares. Currently, 7.5% of the company's shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 7,553,889 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Vincent Vultaggio sold 29,951 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.43, for a total value of $72,780.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 156,779 shares in the company, valued at approximately $380,972.97. This represents a 16.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold 46,617 shares of company stock valued at $113,417 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals by 35.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 31,579 shares of the company's stock valued at $48,000 after acquiring an additional 8,236 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 188,582 shares of the company's stock valued at $255,000 after acquiring an additional 14,961 shares in the last quarter. Barr E S & Co. raised its stake in shares of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals by 43.8% in the fourth quarter. Barr E S & Co. now owns 57,500 shares of the company's stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 17,500 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,904,400 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,386,000 after acquiring an additional 19,768 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000.

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 2.2%

ZNTL opened at $3.96 on Thursday. Zentalis Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $1.13 and a 52 week high of $6.95. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.32. The firm has a market cap of $280.89 million, a P/E ratio of -2.08 and a beta of 1.65.

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ZNTL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 26th. The company reported ($0.49) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.41) by ($0.08). Sell-side analysts expect that Zentalis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ZNTL. Wall Street Zen lowered Zentalis Pharmaceuticals from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on Zentalis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $5.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Zentalis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their price target on Zentalis Pharmaceuticals from $6.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $5.83.

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics for oncology. Leveraging a proprietary structure-based drug discovery platform, the company designs selective inhibitors aimed at critical cancer targets. Zentalis' research and development efforts center on delivering differentiated therapies that address unmet medical needs in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company's lead product candidate, ZN-c3, is an orally administered inhibitor of the p53-MDM2 interaction, currently being evaluated in Phase I clinical trials for advanced solid tumors and hematologic cancers.

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