Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on RIGL. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $57.00 target price on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their target price on Rigel Pharmaceuticals from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.20.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $41.59 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $754.86 million, a P/E ratio of 6.74 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.54. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $14.63 and a 12 month high of $52.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 2.28 and a quick ratio of 2.14.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $1.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.53. Rigel Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 204.70% and a net margin of 40.17%.The firm had revenue of $69.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.88 million. As a group, analysts predict that Rigel Pharmaceuticals will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Rigel Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RIGL. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth about $488,000. Armistice Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 5.5% in the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 1,600,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,968,000 after purchasing an additional 84,000 shares during the period. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at approximately $389,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 50.1% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 565,045 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,161,000 after buying an additional 188,679 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 217,776 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,918,000 after buying an additional 15,687 shares during the period. 66.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Founded in 2003, Rigel focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule therapeutics targeting immune, hematologic and oncologic diseases. Leveraging a proprietary chemistry platform and expertise in signal transduction pathways, the company aims to address significant unmet medical needs in both rare and common disorders.

Rigel’s lead product, fostamatinib (commercially known as Tavalisse®), is an oral spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) inhibitor approved in the United States for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).