Fidelity Management & Research Co recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Galapagos NV (NASDAQ:GLPG). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 4.47% to 3.7 million shares with purchase of 0.16 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.61% valued currently at $164.04 million. In addition, Wellington Management Co. LLP raised its holdings by 0.43 million to 0.46 million shares. And Prosight Management LP has lifted its position by 9.76% or 36000.0 shares – to 0.41 million shares.
With over 0.13 million Galapagos NV (GLPG) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $46.22 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $6.1 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -14.86% and its price on 01/23/23 gained nearly 0.87%. Currently, there are 65.84M common shares owned by the public and among those 65.71M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 12 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for GLPG have a consensus price objective of $56.52. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $71.28 and a low of $40.11. The average price target is 16.27% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -15.23% over that period. But an upside of 35.16% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $55.18.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Galapagos NV are Fidelity Contrafund, Fidelity VIP – Growth Portfolio, and iShares Biotechnology ETF. Fidelity Contrafund owns 1.18 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $52.58 million. The company sold 667.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 1.80% of the shares outstanding. iShares Biotechnology ETF bought 1530.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.41 million shares at a value of $18.09 million. iShares Biotechnology ETF now owns shares totaling to 0.62% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Galapagos NV (NASDAQ: GLPG) opened at $47.06, up $1.24 from a prior closing price of $45.82. However, the script later moved the day high at 47.25, up 0.87%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -1.01% and 6.79% over the past three months. GLPG shares are trading 4.15% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -18.14% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $37.24 and touched a high of $72.11 over the same period. GLPG has an average intraday trading volume of 177.33K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.03%, 10.02%, and -8.20% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Galapagos NV (NASDAQ: GLPG) shares accounts for 19.56% of the company’s 65.84M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 13.19%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 6.37% and — respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $3.02B. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 513.56, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.09. The company has a PEG of 723.32. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.43% over the week and 2.18% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Galapagos NV (GLPG) will achieve an EPS of -$1.06 for the current quarter, -$1.1 for the next quarter and -$4.06 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$2.01 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of -$0.34. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was -$1.13 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 14.30%, and -131.20% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 12 brokerage firm advisors rate Galapagos NV (GLPG) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.10. Specifically, 3 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 9 of the 12 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the GLPG, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Jefferies stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on January 23, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $49-$47.20. Barclays on their part issued Equal Weight rating on August 19, 2021.
