William Blair Initiates Coverage on Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS)

Research analysts at William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) in a report released on Wednesday, Briefing.com reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $96.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $64.00 to $57.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.20.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of APLS opened at $27.95 on Wednesday. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $26.28 and a fifty-two week high of $73.80. The company’s fifty day moving average is $34.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.01. The firm has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a PE ratio of -8.08 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 4.18, a current ratio of 5.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.73.

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. The firm had revenue of $199.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.89 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 138.32% and a negative net margin of 52.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 110.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($1.02) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Apellis Pharmaceuticals news, Director A. Sinclair Dunlop sold 37,000 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total transaction of $1,340,510.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 100,000 shares in the company, valued at $3,623,000. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,218,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at about $942,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 42.2% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 134,536 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,161,000 after buying an additional 39,931 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 90.7% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 42,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,648,000 after buying an additional 20,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC grew its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 137.8% in the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 123,628 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,742,000 after acquiring an additional 71,650 shares in the last quarter. 96.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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).