Arcutis Biotherapeutics Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:ARQT)

Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARQT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 5,056 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 79% compared to the average daily volume of 2,821 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on ARQT. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics from $6.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 target price (up previously from $8.00) on shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price target on shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics in a report on Friday, April 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.56.

Arcutis Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

ARQT traded down $0.03 during trading on Friday, hitting $8.56. The stock had a trading volume of 1,500,873 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,586,932. The firm has a market cap of $828.69 million, a PE ratio of -2.19 and a beta of 1.14. Arcutis Biotherapeutics has a 12 month low of $1.76 and a 12 month high of $15.21. The company has a current ratio of 7.08, a quick ratio of 6.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.76.

Arcutis Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ARQT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported ($0.72) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by ($0.08). Arcutis Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 294.85% and a negative net margin of 439.79%. The firm had revenue of $13.53 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.78 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($1.18) EPS. Analysts expect that Arcutis Biotherapeutics will post -2.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Masaru Matsuda sold 3,760 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.12, for a total transaction of $41,811.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 190,424 shares in the company, valued at $2,117,514.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 20.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Amalgamated Bank increased its holdings in shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics by 48.9% during the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 11,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 3,639 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 30,362 shares of the company’s stock worth $161,000 after purchasing an additional 3,655 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 48,997 shares of the company’s stock worth $486,000 after purchasing an additional 6,155 shares during the period. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Arcutis Biotherapeutics by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 101,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $537,000 after purchasing an additional 9,100 shares during the period.

About Arcutis Biotherapeutics

Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing treatments for dermatological diseases. Its lead product candidate is ARQ-151, a topical roflumilast cream that has completed Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of plaque psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.