Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN)

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 5,111 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 273% compared to the typical volume of 1,372 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BMRN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical from $109.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup increased their price objective on BioMarin Pharmaceutical from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on BioMarin Pharmaceutical from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded BioMarin Pharmaceutical from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Erin Burkhart sold 1,344 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.38, for a total transaction of $91,902.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 13,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $896,119.90. The trade was a 9.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BioMarin Pharmaceutical

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BMRN. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in BioMarin Pharmaceutical during the fourth quarter worth approximately $234,645,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 23.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,991,772 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $853,944,000 after buying an additional 2,496,817 shares during the last quarter. Soleus Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical in the 4th quarter valued at $65,822,000. Dodge & Cox grew its position in shares of BioMarin Pharmaceutical by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 14,746,235 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $969,270,000 after buying an additional 847,917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in BioMarin Pharmaceutical during the 3rd quarter worth $48,527,000. 98.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BMRN opened at $72.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 5.33 and a quick ratio of 2.62. The company has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $67.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.84. BioMarin Pharmaceutical has a 1-year low of $60.63 and a 1-year high of $94.85.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:BMRN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The biotechnology company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.18. BioMarin Pharmaceutical had a net margin of 14.96% and a return on equity of 9.91%. The firm had revenue of $747.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $711.05 million. Analysts forecast that BioMarin Pharmaceutical will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About BioMarin Pharmaceutical

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc develops and commercializes therapies for people with serious and life-threatening rare diseases and medical conditions. Its commercial products include Vimizim, an enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) IV type A, a lysosomal storage disorder; Naglazyme, a recombinant form of N-acetylgalactosamine 4-sulfatase for patients with MPS VI; and Kuvan, a proprietary synthetic oral form of 6R-BH4 that is used to treat patients with phenylketonuria (PKU), an inherited metabolic disease.