Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) Stock Rating Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Halozyme Therapeutics from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 7th. Leerink Partners lowered shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $117.00 in a research note on Friday, November 6th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Halozyme Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from $93.00 to $149.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Halozyme Therapeutics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $105.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $108.18.

Halozyme Therapeutics Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of Halozyme Therapeutics stock opened at $100.67 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $114.77 and its 200 day moving average is $85.36. Halozyme Therapeutics has a one year low of $61.22 and a one year high of $134.00. The firm has a market cap of $11.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.62, a PEG ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.50, a current ratio of 3.88 and a quick ratio of 3.60.

Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HALO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $2.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $492.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $491.63 million. Halozyme Therapeutics had a return on equity of 751.81% and a net margin of 26.93%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Halozyme Therapeutics will post 8.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Matthew Posard sold 18,996 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.74, for a total transaction of $2,046,629.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 58,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,339,313.86. This represents a 24.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Helen Torley sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.43, for a total value of $2,148,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 767,780 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,482,605.40. This represents a 2.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 124,226 shares of company stock worth $13,370,893 over the last ninety days. 2.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Halozyme Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HALO. MidFirst Bank acquired a new position in Halozyme Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Halozyme Therapeutics in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Halozyme Therapeutics in the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Halozyme Therapeutics by 98.0% in the third quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 303 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Halozyme Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 97.79% of the company’s stock.

Halozyme Therapeutics Company Profile

Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on developing drug-delivery technologies and medicines. Its ENHANZE platform uses a recombinant human hyaluronidase enzyme, rHuPH20, to temporarily modify tissue under the skin and help enable the subcutaneous administration of certain biologic medicines that might otherwise require intravenous infusion. Halozyme licenses ENHANZE to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners, which use the technology in their own products. The company also markets Hylenex recombinant, a hyaluronidase product used to facilitate the dispersion and absorption of other injected medicines and fluids.