Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Applied Therapeutics Call Options (NASDAQ:APLT)

Applied Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 10,681 call options on the company. This is an increase of 2,011% compared to the average volume of 506 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

APLT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $12.00 price target on shares of Applied Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Applied Therapeutics from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, William Blair raised Applied Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.25.

Applied Therapeutics Trading Up 66.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ APLT traded up $3.10 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $7.75. The company had a trading volume of 42,801,898 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,676,918. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $5.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $5.29. The stock has a market cap of $885.57 million, a PE ratio of -4.01 and a beta of 2.03. Applied Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $1.79 and a 1-year high of $9.39.

Applied Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APLT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.13) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $0.14 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.00 million. On average, research analysts expect that Applied Therapeutics will post -0.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Shoshana Shendelman sold 119,591 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.93, for a total transaction of $709,174.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,690,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,816,675.27. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 8.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Applied Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of APLT. Victory Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Applied Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $54,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $54,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $87,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Applied Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at about $110,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in Applied Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $81,000. 98.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Applied Therapeutics Company Profile

Applied Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of a pipeline of novel product candidates against validated molecular targets in indications of high unmet medical need in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is AT-007 (also called govorestat) that has completed phase 3 for the treatment of galactosemia in healthy volunteers and adults, in pediatric clinical study for the treatment of galactosemia in kids, for treating enzyme sorbitol dehydrogenase, and for the treatment of phosphomannomutase enzyme-CDG.