Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Cantor Fitzgerald

Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB) was upgraded by investment analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, Bank of America restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $36.10 target price (up from $29.00) on shares of Zai Lab in a research note on Monday.

Zai Lab Stock Up 4.6 %

NASDAQ ZLAB traded up $1.55 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $35.55. The company had a trading volume of 202,434 shares, compared to its average volume of 896,070. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.18. Zai Lab has a fifty-two week low of $13.48 and a fifty-two week high of $36.60. The stock has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.85 and a beta of 1.02.

Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.80) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.61) by ($0.19). The firm had revenue of $109.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $110.15 million. Zai Lab had a negative return on equity of 36.97% and a negative net margin of 76.14%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Zai Lab will post -2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Zai Lab

In other news, insider Frazor Titus Edmondson III sold 14,544 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.98, for a total value of $479,661.12. Following the sale, the insider now owns 14,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $472,537.44. The trade was a 50.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ying Du sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.44, for a total transaction of $1,622,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 494,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,029,155.48. The trade was a 9.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 122,127 shares of company stock valued at $4,024,442 over the last quarter. 13.88% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Zai Lab

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ZLAB. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Zai Lab by 749.1% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,475,505 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,403,000 after purchasing an additional 4,830,646 shares during the last quarter. RTW Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Zai Lab in the 4th quarter worth $65,714,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Zai Lab by 34.2% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 8,760,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,488,000 after buying an additional 2,232,507 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Zai Lab during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,172,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Zai Lab by 18.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,436,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $203,660,000 after buying an additional 1,312,115 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.65% of the company’s stock.

About Zai Lab

Zai Lab Limited develops and commercializes therapies to treat oncology, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, and neuroscience. Its commercial products include Zejula, an orally administered poly polymerase 1/2 inhibitor; Optune, a cancer therapy that uses electric fields tuned to specific frequencies to kill tumor cells; NUZYRA for acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections, and community acquired bacterial pneumonia; Qinlock to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and VYVGART, a human IgG1 antibody fragment for myesthenia gravis.