Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) Given New $48.00 Price Target at HC Wainwright

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) had its price target raised by HC Wainwright from $45.00 to $48.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the company. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, January 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $24.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals from $52.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $32.61.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.2%

Shares of APLS opened at $21.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 3.54 and a quick ratio of 3.10. Apellis Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $16.10 and a 1-year high of $30.48. The stock has a market cap of $2.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.02 and a beta of 0.26. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.83.

Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:APLS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.86. The firm had revenue of $199.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.28 million. Apellis Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 2.23%.Apellis Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.29) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Apellis Pharmaceuticals will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Caroline Baumal sold 2,797 shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals 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 $60,890.69. Following the sale, the insider owned 86,527 shares in the company, valued at $1,883,692.79. This trade represents a 3.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Pascal Deschatelets sold 5,928 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.77, for a total value of $129,052.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,151,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,065,586.14. This represents a 0.51% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 120,537 shares of company stock valued at $2,608,532. 6.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Apellis Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 207.4% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 29,559 shares of the company’s stock valued at $667,000 after acquiring an additional 19,944 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 26.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 307,709 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,730,000 after purchasing an additional 64,742 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 222,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,869,000 after purchasing an additional 9,747 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in shares of Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 118.4% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 21,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $479,000 after purchasing an additional 11,862 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Apellis Pharmaceuticals by 1,146.2% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 23,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $522,000 after buying an additional 22,052 shares during the period. 96.29% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Apellis Pharmaceuticals

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.