SSgA Funds Management, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRX). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 4.21% to 7.87 million shares with purchase of 0.32 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 7.43% valued currently at $125.34 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.62 million to 6.52 million shares. And Deerfield Management Co. LP has lifted its position by 20.19% or 0.99 million shares – to 5.88 million shares.
With over 1.8 million Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CPRX) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $12.08 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $21.74 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -22.51% and its price on 05/23/23 lost nearly -2.97%. Currently, there are 105.56M common shares owned by the public and among those 97.66M 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: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for CPRX have a consensus price objective of $21.40. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $25.00 and a low of $15.00. The average price target is 43.55% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 19.47% over that period. But an upside of 51.68% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $22.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 132 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 62 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,589,810 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 70 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 3,837,162 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, SPDR S&P Biotech ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 6.95 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $110.67 million. The company sold 9962.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 6.56% of the shares outstanding. SPDR S&P Biotech ETF bought 70070.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 4.0 million shares valued at over $63.72 million and representing 3.78% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF bought 42788.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.07 million shares at a value of $48.84 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF now owns shares totaling to 2.90% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CPRX) opened at $12.44, down -$0.01 from a prior closing price of $12.45. However, the script later moved the day high at 12.61, down -2.97%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -3.44% and -21.46% over the past three months. CPRX shares are trading -35.05% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 71.10% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $6.15 and touched a high of $22.11 over the same period. CPRX has an average intraday trading volume of 1.93 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -20.19%, -24.58%, and -21.93% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CPRX) shares accounts for 83.20% of the company’s 105.56M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 40.85%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 41.85% and 14.44% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.28B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.12. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 13.68, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.88. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 4.43% over the week and 5.04% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CPRX) will achieve an EPS of $0.28 for the current quarter, $0.3 for the next quarter and $1.45 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.26 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.3. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.2 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 103.70%, and 25.00% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CPRX) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.20. Specifically, 4 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
