Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Trading Down 4.4% Following Analyst Downgrade

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) shares fell 4.4% on Monday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $64.00 to $57.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Apellis Pharmaceuticals traded as low as $35.96 and last traded at $35.96. 67,189 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 95% from the average session volume of 1,475,236 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.62.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on APLS. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $86.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. HC Wainwright decreased their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $92.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $57.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $71.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apellis Pharmaceuticals news, Director A. Sinclair Dunlop sold 37,000 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.24, for a total value of $1,451,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 136,998 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,375,801.52. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 6.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at $281,000. Level Four Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $626,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $56,640,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 52.6% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 17,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,038,000 after buying an additional 5,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth about $13,755,000. Institutional investors own 96.29% of the company’s stock.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.5 %

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 4.18 and a current ratio of 5.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.49 and a beta of 0.88.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.30) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.03. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 138.32% and a negative net margin of 52.99%. The firm had revenue of $199.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.89 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($1.02) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 110.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA).