Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Price Target Cut to $44.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) had its price objective reduced by Citigroup from $45.00 to $44.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on APLS. HC Wainwright upped their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho decreased their target price on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $24.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.61.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.2%

Shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $21.42 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $23.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.83. The company has a current ratio of 3.54, a quick ratio of 3.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $16.10 and a 12-month high of $30.48. The company has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.02 and a beta of 0.26.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by $0.86. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 2.23% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The company had revenue of $199.91 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.28 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.29) earnings per share. Apellis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Apellis Pharmaceuticals news, insider Pascal Deschatelets sold 5,928 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total transaction of $129,052.56. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,151,382 shares in the company, valued at $25,065,586.14. This trade represents a 0.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Timothy Eugene Sullivan sold 10,287 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total transaction of $223,947.99. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 93,901 shares in the company, valued at $2,044,224.77. This trade represents a 9.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 120,537 shares of company stock worth $2,608,532. 6.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apellis Pharmaceuticals

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in APLS. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 225,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,677,000 after purchasing an additional 42,960 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 25.4% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 96,211 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,424,000 after buying an additional 19,500 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter worth about $366,000. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 17.4% in the 4th quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 27,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $680,000 after acquiring an additional 4,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Twinbeech Capital LP boosted its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 47.3% during the 4th quarter. Twinbeech Capital LP now owns 13,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 4,225 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.29% of the company’s stock.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Apellis Pharmaceuticals this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat EPS and slightly topped revenue expectations; management highlighted a strong new launch for EMPAVELI (sales up ~50%), which offsets some weakness in other products. This is the company press release/financial report. Apellis Q4 Results (GlobeNewswire)
• Positive Sentiment: HC Wainwright raised its price target to $48 and maintained a buy rating, signaling bullish analyst conviction around long-term upside tied to product launches. HC Wainwright PT Raise (Benzinga)
• Neutral Sentiment: Full earnings call transcript, slide deck and third‑party coverage are available — useful for digging into guidance, channel dynamics and management commentary but not new market-moving data by themselves. Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short-interest data in the feeds appears unreliable/zero (NaN/0 shares), so there’s no clear short-selling pressure signal to explain today’s move. (Data flagged as inconsistent across feeds.)
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage flagged a wider-than-expected loss narrative and year-over-year revenue decline (~5.9% YoY); Syfovre sales slipped ~8%, which raises near-term growth concerns even though EPS beat. Zacks Earnings Coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Several brokers adjusted price targets downward or to neutral: RBC cut to $21 (sector perform) and Wedbush cut to $18 (neutral); Citigroup trimmed its target slightly to $44 but kept a buy rating — the mixed analyst actions add near-term selling pressure. Analyst Moves (Benzinga) TickerReport

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, traded as NASDAQ:APLS, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies targeting the complement cascade for the treatment of rare and debilitating diseases. The company’s research and development efforts center on modulating complement proteins to address a range of ophthalmologic, hematologic and renal conditions. Apellis leverages its proprietary compstatin technology platform to design targeted inhibitors intended to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.

The company’s lead marketed product, Syfovre (pegcetacoplan), is an intravitreal complement C3 inhibitor approved for geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration, with ongoing investigations in other retinal disorders.