Legend Biotech’s (LEGN) Buy Rating Reiterated at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reissued their buy rating on shares of Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN) in a report published on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $65.00 price objective on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Oppenheimer cut shares of Legend Biotech from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $40.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of Legend Biotech in a report on Monday, July 27th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $28.00 price target (down from $49.00) on shares of Legend Biotech in a research report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Legend Biotech in a research note on Monday, July 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $35.00 price target for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Legend Biotech from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.43.

Legend Biotech Stock Performance

Shares of LEGN opened at $21.52 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.17 billion, a PE ratio of -86.08 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.57. Legend Biotech has a twelve month low of $16.24 and a twelve month high of $37.50.

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 11th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $387.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $355.96 million. Legend Biotech had a negative net margin of 7.21% and a negative return on equity of 8.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.03 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Legend Biotech will post -0.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Legend Biotech

In related news, CEO Ying Huang sold 5,566 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.78, for a total transaction of $82,265.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 241,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,574,868.16. The trade was a 2.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Legend Biotech

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Suvretta Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Legend Biotech by 73.1% during the fourth quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 6,608,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,672,000 after buying an additional 2,790,620 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its stake in shares of Legend Biotech by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 6,164,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $134,020,000 after acquiring an additional 70,191 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Legend Biotech by 120.5% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,174,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,274,000 after acquiring an additional 1,188,449 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Legend Biotech during the second quarter worth $55,307,000. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Legend Biotech by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,632,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,251,000 after purchasing an additional 72,371 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.89% of the company’s stock.

Legend Biotech Company Profile

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ: LEGN) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development and commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies for oncology. Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, with research and development operations in Shanghai, the company leverages a global infrastructure to advance innovative cellular therapies. Legend Biotech pursues a strategy of strategic collaboration to extend its reach, most notably through its partnership with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

The company’s lead asset, ciltacabtagene autoleucel (commercially marketed as Carvykti), is a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)–directed CAR-T therapy for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.