Short Interest in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) Declines By 5.7%

Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) saw a significant drop in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,520,000 shares, a drop of 5.7% from the March 31st total of 14,340,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,970,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ALKS. Robert W. Baird started coverage on Alkermes in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $37.00 price target for the company. Bank of America upped their target price on Alkermes from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price target on shares of Alkermes in a research note on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Alkermes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Alkermes from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $25.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Alkermes currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.38.

Insider Activity at Alkermes

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

Institutional Trading of Alkermes

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ALKS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Alkermes by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,955,454 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,304,000 after acquiring an additional 2,288,185 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Alkermes by 29.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,241,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $422,798,000 after purchasing an additional 3,494,678 shares during the last quarter. RTW Investments LP raised its holdings in Alkermes by 338.8% in the 4th quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,901,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,228,000 after buying an additional 3,012,450 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Alkermes by 4.0% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,761,316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,344,000 after buying an additional 106,749 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Alkermes by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,403,195 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,666,000 after buying an additional 90,219 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Alkermes Stock Up 0.8 %

ALKS stock opened at $24.88 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $27.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.83. Alkermes has a 12 month low of $22.01 and a 12 month high of $33.71. The company has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.02, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.56.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last issued its 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 company had revenue of $377.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $362.78 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.02) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 23.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Alkermes will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alkermes announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program 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 programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Alkermes

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.