Ligand Pharmaceuticals’ (LGND) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at HC Wainwright

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at HC Wainwright in a report issued on Thursday, September 24th, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $358.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 17.54% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $255.00 to $332.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $390.00 to $397.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Bank of America upped their price target on Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $266.00 to $388.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Ligand Pharmaceuticals from $340.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Ligand Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $337.89.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

LGND stock traded down $7.80 during trading on Thursday, hitting $304.57. The stock had a trading volume of 48,980 shares, compared to its average volume of 270,334. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 31.18 and a quick ratio of 30.96. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $175.56 and a twelve month high of $326.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.58, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $291.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $260.74.

Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LGND) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $2.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.97 by $0.40. Ligand Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 20.06% and a net margin of 67.88%.The company had revenue of $63.69 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.30 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.60 EPS. Ligand Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 33.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Ligand Pharmaceuticals has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.000-9.500 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ligand Pharmaceuticals will post 5.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ligand Pharmaceuticals

In related news, CFO Octavio Espinoza sold 31,641 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.06, for a total value of $9,241,070.46. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 27,696 shares in the company, valued at $8,088,893.76. This represents a 53.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Andrew Reardon sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.09, for a total value of $1,430,450.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 36,514 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,446,290.26. This represents a 12.04% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 49,979 shares of company stock worth $14,548,548. 5.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of LGND. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 1,040.0% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 342 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 114.5% during the fourth quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 354 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in Ligand Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth approximately $75,000. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ligand Pharmaceuticals by 118.9% during the second quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 243 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. 91.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ligand Pharmaceuticals

Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated is a biopharmaceutical company that develops and licenses technologies and drug assets to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners. Rather than operating primarily as a traditional commercial drug manufacturer, Ligand focuses on building a portfolio of royalty agreements, licensing arrangements and other partnerships that can generate payments when partnered products are developed, approved and sold.

The company’s best-known technology is Captisol, a chemically modified cyclodextrin designed to improve the solubility, stability and delivery of certain drug compounds.