Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) Short Interest Update

Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 18,620,000 shares, an increase of 8.3% from the August 31st total of 17,190,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,760,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 10.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alkermes

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Alkermes by 421.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,326,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $225,393,000 after purchasing an additional 6,730,671 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Alkermes by 29.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,241,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $422,798,000 after acquiring an additional 3,494,678 shares during the period. RTW Investments LP grew its stake in Alkermes by 338.8% in the 4th quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,901,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,228,000 after buying an additional 3,012,450 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Alkermes by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,955,454 shares of the company’s stock valued at $581,304,000 after acquiring an additional 2,288,185 shares during the period. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC grew its position in Alkermes by 301.5% during the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 2,699,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,050,000 after buying an additional 2,026,961 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ALKS. StockNews.com upgraded Alkermes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 28th. HC Wainwright raised their target price on Alkermes from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Alkermes from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective on shares of Alkermes in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Alkermes from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $36.70.

Alkermes Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ ALKS opened at $27.99 on Tuesday. Alkermes has a one year low of $22.01 and a one year high of $32.88. The firm has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a PE ratio of 11.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.99 and a quick ratio of 2.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.73.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.70. The business had revenue of $399.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $393.30 million. Alkermes had a return on equity of 23.20% and a net margin of 19.15%. Alkermes’s quarterly revenue was down 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Alkermes will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alkermes Company Profile

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.