Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN) Given “Buy” Rating at HC Wainwright

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at HC Wainwright in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $65.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 237.31% from the company’s previous close.

LEGN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Legend Biotech from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on Legend Biotech from $63.00 to $59.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective (down from $49.00) on shares of Legend Biotech in a report on Monday. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 target price on shares of Legend Biotech in a research report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Legend Biotech from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.29.

Legend Biotech Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LEGN opened at $19.27 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.39. The company has a market capitalization of $3.58 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.34 and a beta of 0.34. Legend Biotech has a 1 year low of $16.24 and a 1 year high of $43.71.

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.02) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $305.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $306.51 million. Legend Biotech had a negative net margin of 21.98% and a negative return on equity of 24.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 56.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.07) EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Legend Biotech will post -0.01 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Legend Biotech news, CEO Ying Huang sold 5,566 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.78, for a total transaction of $82,265.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 241,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,574,868.16. This represents a 2.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Legend Biotech

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. First Trust Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Legend Biotech in the second quarter valued at $411,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its stake in Legend Biotech by 77.6% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 148,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,277,000 after purchasing an additional 64,956 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Legend Biotech by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 84,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,984,000 after purchasing an additional 11,771 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in Legend Biotech by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,560,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,386,000 after purchasing an additional 52,344 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in Legend Biotech in the 2nd quarter valued at about $15,790,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.89% of the company’s stock.

About Legend Biotech

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ: LEGN) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development and commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies for oncology. Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, with research and development operations in Shanghai, the company leverages a global infrastructure to advance innovative cellular therapies. Legend Biotech pursues a strategy of strategic collaboration to extend its reach, most notably through its partnership with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

The company’s lead asset, ciltacabtagene autoleucel (commercially marketed as Carvykti), is a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)–directed CAR-T therapy for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.