Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $49.00.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PLRX. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Pliant Therapeutics from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pliant Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Pliant Therapeutics by 141.1% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,406,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,852,000 after purchasing an additional 2,578,692 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,785,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,564,000 after acquiring an additional 434,429 shares during the period. First Light Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 3,591,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,047,000 after acquiring an additional 658,516 shares during the period. Laurion Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Laurion Capital Management LP now owns 3,186,511 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,254,000 after acquiring an additional 27,941 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,065,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,523,000 after acquiring an additional 120,557 shares during the period. 97.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Pliant Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PLRX opened at $13.26 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $15.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.74. Pliant Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $12.60 and a 1-year high of $30.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $798.78 million, a P/E ratio of -4.75 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 17.72, a quick ratio of 17.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02.

Pliant Therapeutics Company Profile

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.