Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $753.00 to $781.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $850.00 to $1,057.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from $704.00 to $708.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $779.45.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 1.5%

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $779.36 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $81.91 billion, a PE ratio of 18.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a current ratio of 4.06. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $476.49 and a fifty-two week high of $790.98. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $686.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $603.31.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $11.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.73 by $2.10. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 13.76% and a net margin of 32.13%.The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $12.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals will post 35.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 20th were given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 20th. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’s dividend payout ratio is currently 8.43%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Christine A. Poon sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $654.27, for a total transaction of $4,252,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,352 shares in the company, valued at $1,538,843.04. The trade was a 73.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Jason Pitofsky sold 431 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $651.43, for a total transaction of $280,766.33. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 4,233 shares in the company, valued at $2,757,503.19. This represents a 9.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 7.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of REGN. Activest Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals by 110.5% during the first quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 40 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. Saudi Central Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC purchased a new position in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC purchased a new stake in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 83.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ: REGN) is a U.S.-based biotechnology company founded in 1988 and headquartered in Tarrytown, New York. It focuses on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing medicines for serious medical conditions. The company combines laboratory research, clinical development and in-house manufacturing to advance a pipeline of biologic therapies across multiple therapeutic areas.

Regeneron is known for its proprietary drug discovery technologies, including its VelocImmune platform, which is used to generate fully human monoclonal antibodies.