Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) gapped up prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $28.34, but opened at $30.10. Maplight Therapeutics shares last traded at $29.7950, with a volume of 1,941 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MPLT shares. UBS Group started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock. Craig Hallum started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, May 21st. They set a “buy” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Lifesci Capital raised Maplight Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Maplight Therapeutics has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.78.

Maplight Therapeutics Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $27.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.89.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). Research analysts anticipate that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -5.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Maplight Therapeutics

In related news, insider Anatol Kreitzer sold 45,422 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.66, for a total transaction of $1,347,216.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 211,190 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,263,895.40. This trade represents a 17.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total value of $3,214,809.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,394,094 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,905,415.86. This represents a 7.82% 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 495,244 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,461. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at about $1,113,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at about $7,622,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Maplight Therapeutics by 10.1% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 39,465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 3,608 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,168,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $228,000.

About Maplight Therapeutics

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.