The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 0.37% to 18.19 million shares with purchase of 66410.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 10.90% valued currently at $440.07 million. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 82430.0 to 12.31 million shares. And Wellington Management Co. LLP has lifted its position by 52.74% or 4.06 million shares – to 11.75 million shares.
With over 6.17 million Alkermes plc (ALKS) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $26.33 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $162.35 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -3.86% and its price on 12/04/23 gained nearly 8.40%. Currently, there are 164.38M common shares owned by the public and among those 164.12M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 12 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for ALKS have a consensus price objective of $31.66. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $39.04 and a low of $23.24. The average price target is 16.84% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -13.3% over that period. But an upside of 32.56% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $33.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 107 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 55 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 554,056 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 52 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 245,964 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Alkermes plc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Hardman Johnston Global Equity, and Vanguard Health Care Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 5.2 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $125.76 million. The company bought an additional 44331.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.12% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Health Care Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.77% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Alkermes plc (NASDAQ: ALKS) opened at $25.94, up $1.65 from a prior closing price of $24.29. However, the script later moved the day high at 26.42, up 8.40%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 8.71% and -2.97% over the past three months. ALKS shares are trading 8.40% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 12.40% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $20.46 and touched a high of $31.34 over the same period. ALKS has an average intraday trading volume of 1.98 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 12.32%, 7.84%, and -0.70% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Alkermes plc (NASDAQ: ALKS) shares accounts for 98.38% of the company’s 164.38M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 49.18%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 49.59% and 1.82% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $4.39B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.56. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 21.33, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.23. The company has a PEG of 0.86 and a Quick Ratio of 2.53 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.28. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 4.13% over the week and 3.26% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Alkermes plc (ALKS) will achieve an EPS of $0.54 for the current quarter, $0.54 for the next quarter and $2.37 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.47 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.59. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.14 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 390.55%, and 40.08% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 24.80% over the next five years, compared to 1.24% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 12 brokerage firm advisors rate Alkermes plc (ALKS) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.00. Specifically, 6 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 6 of the 12 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the ALKS, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. JP Morgan stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on November 20, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $33.
