Prudential Financial Inc. Purchases 10,687 Shares of Blueprint Medicines Co. (NASDAQ:BPMC)

Prudential Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Blueprint Medicines Co. (NASDAQ:BPMC) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 100,538 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 10,687 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Blueprint Medicines were worth $8,769,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Blueprint Medicines in the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in Blueprint Medicines in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Blueprint Medicines in the fourth quarter valued at about $88,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Blueprint Medicines by 48.2% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,116 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Blueprint Medicines during the third quarter worth approximately $108,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on BPMC shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Blueprint Medicines from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $135.00 price objective on shares of Blueprint Medicines in a report on Friday, February 14th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Blueprint Medicines in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective on shares of Blueprint Medicines in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Blueprint Medicines from $126.00 to $129.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Blueprint Medicines presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $124.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blueprint Medicines news, insider Ariel Hurley sold 3,203 shares of Blueprint Medicines stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.62, for a total value of $296,661.86. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 18,270 shares in the company, valued at $1,692,167.40. The trade was a 14.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Christina Rossi sold 2,274 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.02, for a total value of $216,075.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,266 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,581,655.32. The trade was a 3.18 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,608 shares of company stock valued at $3,319,587. Company insiders own 4.21% of the company’s stock.

Blueprint Medicines Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BPMC opened at $88.72 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.67 billion, a PE ratio of -82.15 and a beta of 0.58. Blueprint Medicines Co. has a 12-month low of $80.68 and a 12-month high of $121.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $98.13 and a 200 day moving average of $93.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Blueprint Medicines (NASDAQ:BPMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.79) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.68) by ($0.11). Blueprint Medicines had a negative net margin of 13.19% and a negative return on equity of 77.49%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Blueprint Medicines Co. will post -1.28 EPS for the current year.

About Blueprint Medicines

Blueprint Medicines Corporation, a precision therapy company, develops medicines for genomically defined cancers and blood disorders in the United States and internationally. The company is developing AYVAKIT for the treatment of systemic mastocytosis (SM) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors; BLU-263, an orally available, potent, and KIT inhibitor for the treatment of indolent SM, and other mast cell disorders.