Wall Street Zen Downgrades Palisade Bio (NASDAQ:PALI) to Sell

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Palisade Bio from hold to sell in a research note issued Monday.
• Despite the downgrade, analyst sentiment remains mixed-to-bullish overall: Palisade Bio still has an average Buy rating and a $8.83 average price target, with several firms recently reiterating or raising positive ratings.
• The stock was trading around $1.96, after a recent earnings miss of ($0.05) EPS vs. ($0.04) expected, while CEO John David Finley sold shares and director Robert Jr. Baltera bought shares on July 7.

Palisade Bio (NASDAQ:PALI - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note issued on Monday.

PALI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer set a $7.00 price target on Palisade Bio in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH raised Palisade Bio to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. HC Wainwright restated a "buy" rating and set a $2.00 target price on shares of Palisade Bio in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Palisade Bio from a "sell (e+)" rating to a "sell (d-)" rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Palisade Bio in a report on Thursday, April 9th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Palisade Bio currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $8.83.

Palisade Bio Price Performance

Palisade Bio stock opened at $1.96 on Monday. Palisade Bio has a twelve month low of $0.53 and a twelve month high of $2.85. The company has a market capitalization of $340.22 million, a P/E ratio of -1.94 and a beta of 1.50. The stock's 50 day moving average is $1.92 and its 200 day moving average is $1.92.

Palisade Bio (NASDAQ:PALI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.01). As a group, equities analysts expect that Palisade Bio will post -0.25 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Palisade Bio

In other Palisade Bio news, CEO John David Finley sold 146,798 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total value of $303,871.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 217,555 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $450,338.85. This trade represents a 40.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Robert Jr. Baltera purchased 30,000 shares of Palisade Bio stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $2.03 per share, with a total value of $60,900.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 416,904 shares in the company, valued at approximately $846,315.12. The trade was a 7.75% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have bought 125,000 shares of company stock valued at $250,100. 0.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Palisade Bio

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new position in shares of Palisade Bio during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Palisade Bio in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Palisade Bio during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. bought a new stake in Palisade Bio during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Atom Investors LP purchased a new position in Palisade Bio during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 11.79% of the company's stock.

Palisade Bio Company Profile

Palisade Bio, Inc is a clinical‐stage biotechnology company focused on pioneering localized immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. The company leverages a proprietary prodrug platform designed to activate therapeutic agents selectively within the tumor microenvironment or sites of inflammation. Its core strategy centers on stimulating the innate immune system via toll‐like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonism to drive targeted immune responses while minimizing systemic exposure and toxicity.

The company’s lead product candidate, PDS0108, is an intratumoral TLR9 agonist prodrug currently in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for patients with advanced solid tumors.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.