Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $26.20, but opened at $27.97. Rigel Pharmaceuticals shares last traded at $31.0250, with a volume of 229,592 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RIGL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.50.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $28.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.50. The company has a market capitalization of $528.84 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.21.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.36). The business had revenue of $58.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.40 million. Rigel Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 121.50% and a return on equity of 47.99%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 3.76 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Rigel Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director Walter H. Moos sold 4,000 shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.36, for a total transaction of $145,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,722 shares in the company, valued at $462,571.92. This trade represents a 23.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 10.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 37.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 379,541 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,259,000 after purchasing an additional 102,729 shares in the last quarter. Watershed Asset Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter worth approximately $443,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 133.8% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 48,646 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,315,000 after purchasing an additional 27,843 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 11.4% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 13,861 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $374,000 after buying an additional 1,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. purchased a new position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,479,000. Institutional investors own 66.23% of the company’s stock.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Founded in 2003, Rigel focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule therapeutics targeting immune, hematologic and oncologic diseases. Leveraging a proprietary chemistry platform and expertise in signal transduction pathways, the company aims to address significant unmet medical needs in both rare and common disorders.

Rigel’s lead product, fostamatinib (commercially known as Tavalisse®), is an oral spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor approved in the United States for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).