The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 1.05% to 1.76 million shares with purchase of 18277.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 10.43% valued currently at $117.73 million. In addition, Macquarie Investment Management B raised its holdings by 9800.0 to 0.79 million shares. And Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has lifted its position by 1.45% or 6414.0 shares – to 0.45 million shares.
With over 85160.0 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $72.68 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $6.19 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 21.70% and its price on 01/24/23 gained nearly 2.22%. Currently, there are 16.89M common shares owned by the public and among those 15.96M 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: 6 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for LGND have a consensus price objective of $111.67. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $135.00 and a low of $90.00. The average price target is 34.92% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 19.24% over that period. But an upside of 46.16% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $107.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 71 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 34 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 254,911 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 37 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 118,070 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, Janus Henderson Triton Fund, and Delaware Small Cap Core Fund. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 1.19 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $79.17 million. The company sold 10498.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 7.02% of the shares outstanding. Janus Henderson Triton Fund sold -0.11 million shares to see its total holdings shrink to 0.9 million shares valued at over $59.98 million and representing 5.32% of the shares outstanding. Delaware Small Cap Core Fund bought 4576.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.58 million shares at a value of $38.7 million. Delaware Small Cap Core Fund now owns shares totaling to 3.43% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) opened at $71.00, down -$0.1 from a prior closing price of $71.10. However, the script later moved the day high at 72.69, up 2.22%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 2.44% and 29.52% over the past three months. LGND shares are trading 8.80% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -1.35% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $46.83 and touched a high of $83.95 over the same period. LGND has an average intraday trading volume of 209.72K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 6.49%, 3.87%, and 17.12% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) shares accounts for 90.70% of the company’s 16.89M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 31.67%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 58.92% and 30.52% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.24B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.12. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$1.27. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.70% over the week and 3.12% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND) will achieve an EPS of $0.43 for the current quarter, $0.58 for the next quarter and $3.1 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.38 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.46. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.58 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -33.60%, and -25.45% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 15.00% over the next five years, compared to 98.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 6 brokerage firm advisors rate Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.00. Specifically, 5 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 0 of the 6 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the LGND, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Stephens stated their Overweight rating for the stock in a research note on April 14, 2021, with the firm’s price target at $200. H.C. Wainwright coverage for the Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (LGND) stock in a research note released on February 04, 2021 offered a Buy rating with a price target of $310. Guggenheim on their part issued Neutral rating on March 10, 2020.
