Short Interest in Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) Declines By 16.0%

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) saw a large decline in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 18,040,000 shares, a decline of 16.0% from the December 31st total of 21,480,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.0 days.

Insider Transactions at Apellis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, CEO Cedric Francois sold 2,824 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.52, for a total transaction of $83,364.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 415,695 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,271,316.40. The trade was a 0.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO James George Chopas sold 1,096 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.43, for a total value of $33,351.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 48,138 shares in the company, valued at $1,464,839.34. The trade was a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,002 shares of company stock valued at $1,800,119. Corporate insiders own 6.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Apellis Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 23.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,884,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,036,000 after acquiring an additional 735,160 shares during the period. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth approximately $1,370,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth $824,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 52.9% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 159,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,606,000 after purchasing an additional 55,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Old West Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,953,000. 96.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $61.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $65.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $92.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $43.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.71.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ APLS traded down $0.51 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $28.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 210,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,887,978. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $32.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.00 and a beta of 0.94. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $24.34 and a one year high of $71.90. The company has a current ratio of 4.36, a quick ratio of 3.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.91.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported ($0.46) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($0.14). Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 103.11% and a negative net margin of 34.97%. The company had revenue of $196.83 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $200.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.17) earnings per share. Apellis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 78.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA).