William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys New Shares in Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated $LGND

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ:LGND) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 119,296 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,264,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,009,891 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $201,623,000 after acquiring an additional 14,491 shares in the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 1.4% in the first quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 283,567 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $56,614,000 after purchasing an additional 3,940 shares during the last quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth $81,424,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 41.4% in the third quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 170,089 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $53,131,000 after purchasing an additional 49,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 31.4% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 157,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $31,518,000 after purchasing an additional 37,696 shares during the last quarter. 91.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:LGND traded down $7.48 during trading on Friday, hitting $308.79. 129,023 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 215,877. The stock has a market cap of $6.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 137.85, a P/E/G ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.16. Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $175.89 and a fifty-two week high of $326.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $301.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $258.02. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The biotechnology company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.33 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $78.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $77.00 million. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 5.22% and a net margin of 20.27%. The business’s revenue was down 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated will post 2.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LGND has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $345.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $397.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 5th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $326.00 price target (up from $285.00) on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $345.00 to $357.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Ligand Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, November 2nd. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.38.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ligand Pharmaceuticals news, Director Martine Zimmermann sold 1,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.00, for a total value of $342,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,897 shares in the company, valued at $1,110,645. This trade represents a 23.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $304.07, for a total transaction of $1,520,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,685,845.78. This represents a 13.57% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 21,593 shares of company stock worth $6,585,447. Insiders own 5.60% of the company’s stock.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Profile

Ligand Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners to develop and commercialize medicines. Rather than focusing primarily on selling drugs directly, Ligand licenses technologies and drug-development assets and may receive royalties and other payments from partner programs. Its technologies include Captisol, a formulation platform designed to improve the solubility and delivery of certain medicines. Ligand also holds economic interests in a portfolio of partnered products and drug candidates across multiple therapeutic areas.