Ritholtz Wealth Management Purchases New Stake in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)

Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 10,532 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $348,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ALKS. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Alkermes in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Alkermes by 106.2% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 842 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Alkermes by 2,231.5% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,702 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new stake in Alkermes in the 1st quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in Alkermes by 54.4% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 1,479 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Alkermes

In other news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.95, for a total transaction of $106,489.35. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 89,542 shares in the company, valued at $2,860,866.90. This represents a 3.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 4.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on ALKS shares. UBS Group raised shares of Alkermes from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $33.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Alkermes to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $40.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.00.

Alkermes Stock Performance

Shares of Alkermes stock opened at $29.33 on Friday. Alkermes plc has a 52-week low of $22.90 and a 52-week high of $36.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.47.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by ($0.19). Alkermes had a net margin of 23.30% and a return on equity of 27.52%. The firm had revenue of $306.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $307.53 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Alkermes plc will post 1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.