Bleakley Financial Group LLC Reduces Stake in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC lowered its holdings in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,792 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,268 shares during the quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Alkermes were worth $327,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ALKS. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Alkermes by 52.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,746,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $329,028,000 after buying an additional 4,055,926 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in Alkermes in the 1st quarter worth approximately $56,494,000. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Alkermes by 164.9% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,427,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,571,000 after buying an additional 2,133,877 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Alkermes in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,358,000. Finally, Krensavage Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alkermes in the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,348,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ALKS. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 target price on shares of Alkermes in a research note on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com cut Alkermes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. UBS Group cut Alkermes from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $25.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet upgraded Alkermes from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on Alkermes from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Alkermes has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.25.

Alkermes Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ALKS opened at $24.42 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.80 and a beta of 0.55. Alkermes plc has a 12-month low of $22.01 and a 12-month high of $33.71. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.29). Alkermes had a return on equity of 16.10% and a net margin of 21.39%. The business had revenue of $377.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $362.78 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alkermes plc will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alkermes announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, February 15th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 8.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Alkermes

In other news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 10,417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.10, for a total value of $292,717.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 65,911 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,099.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

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.