Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Increases Stock Holdings in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 91,333 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,670 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Alkermes were worth $2,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Alkermes by 0.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,667,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $522,870,000 after buying an additional 72,797 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Alkermes by 1.2% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,621,253 shares of the company’s stock valued at $468,553,000 after buying an additional 197,079 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Alkermes by 52.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,746,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $329,028,000 after buying an additional 4,055,926 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Alkermes by 9.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,467,201 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,413,000 after buying an additional 556,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Alkermes by 1.2% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,868,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,077,000 after buying an additional 57,068 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALKS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on Alkermes in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group cut Alkermes from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $25.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet upgraded Alkermes from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $39.00 price objective on shares of Alkermes in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Alkermes from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 10,417 shares of Alkermes stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.10, for a total value of $292,717.70. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 65,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,099.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Alkermes Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ALKS opened at $23.76 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $27.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.03. 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 plc has a 12-month low of $22.01 and a 12-month high of $33.71. The firm has a market cap of $4.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.48, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.55.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $362.78 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.02) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 23.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Alkermes plc will post 2.23 EPS for the current year.

Alkermes declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, February 15th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 8.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Alkermes 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.