Raymond James Financial Upgrades Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) to “Strong-Buy”

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) was upgraded by stock analysts at Raymond James Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Monday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Maplight Therapeutics from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Maplight Therapeutics from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Maplight Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.80.

Maplight Therapeutics Trading Up 4.3%

Shares of MPLT stock opened at $31.96 on Wednesday. Maplight Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $12.24 and a 1 year high of $33.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $29.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.36 billion and a P/E ratio of -0.78.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Maplight Therapeutics will post -5.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total transaction of $3,214,809.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,394,094 shares in the company, valued at $37,905,415.86. This trade represents a 7.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider James Woodruff Lillie sold 24,811 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.76, for a total value of $713,564.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 243,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,001,622. This represents a 9.25% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $1,113,000. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Maplight Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $7,622,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 3,608 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $49,168,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. acquired a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth about $228,000.

Maplight Therapeutics Company Profile

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.