VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Buys Shares of 27,665 Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $APLS

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 27,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $479,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,130,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,551,000 after buying an additional 84,331 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 119.6% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,077,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,173,000 after buying an additional 2,220,977 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 2,879.3% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,048,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,935,000 after buying an additional 1,013,500 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 641,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,027,000 after buying an additional 37,741 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter valued at about $10,765,000. 96.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on APLS shares. Raymond James Financial reduced their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $50.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Apellis Pharmaceuticals from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $26.00 to $18.00 in a report on Friday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.47.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ:APLS opened at $28.17 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.48 and a beta of 0.69. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a one year low of $16.10 and a one year high of $35.72. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $25.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.90, a current ratio of 3.77 and a quick ratio of 3.16.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.33) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $171.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $187.91 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 30.24% and a negative return on equity of 116.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.30) EPS. Analysts anticipate that Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Apellis Pharmaceuticals

In other news, General Counsel David O. Watson sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.22, for a total transaction of $126,100.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 113,730 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,868,270.60. The trade was a 4.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Timothy Eugene Sullivan sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.03, for a total value of $280,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 110,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,109,536.08. This represents a 8.27% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 312,921 shares of company stock valued at $8,490,866. Company insiders own 6.50% of the company’s stock.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Profile

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutic compounds through the inhibition of the complement system for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It offers EMPAVELI for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, C3 glomerulopathy and immune complex membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy; and SYFOVRE for treating geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration and geographic atrophy (GA).