Short Interest in Leap Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTX) Declines By 18.5%

Leap Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTX) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,540,000 shares, a drop of 18.5% from the February 28th total of 1,890,000 shares. Currently, 5.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 716,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Leap Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Leap Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth about $4,025,000. J. Goldman & Co LP acquired a new position in Leap Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $194,000. Jane Street Group LLC purchased a new position in Leap Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $107,000. Dauntless Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in Leap Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at $144,000. Finally, Gilead Sciences Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Leap Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $15,293,000. 30.46% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Leap Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of LPTX opened at $0.34 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $0.56 and its 200-day moving average is $2.11. Leap Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $0.28 and a 12-month high of $4.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.03 million, a P/E ratio of -0.18 and a beta of 0.22.

Leap Therapeutics (NASDAQ:LPTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by $0.02. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Leap Therapeutics will post -1.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LPTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut Leap Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $1.25 in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Leap Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded shares of Leap Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th.

Leap Therapeutics Company Profile

Leap Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, acquires and develops antibody therapies for the treatment of cancer. Its lead product candidates include DKN-01, a monoclonal antibody that inhibits Dickkopf-related protein 1, which is in multiple ongoing clinical trials for treating esophagogastric and gynecologic cancers; and FL-301, a monoclonal antibody that targets cells that express Claudin18.2 on their cell surface and is in phase II clinical trial, as well as two preclinical antibody programs, FL-302 and FL-501.