New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 12,664 Shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S $ASND

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 169,894 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 12,664 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S were worth $33,777,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. First Horizon Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Ascendis Pharma A/S during the second quarter worth approximately $41,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 291.1% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 352 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 115.3% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 478 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp increased its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 33.7% during the 3rd quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 595 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 15.2% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 735 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $146,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on ASND. Bank of America lifted their target price on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $246.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S from $254.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $260.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. They set a “peer perform” rating and a $255.00 price objective for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ascendis Pharma A/S presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $270.76.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ASND opened at $226.10 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $212.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $201.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.01 billion, a PE ratio of -50.92, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.46. Ascendis Pharma A/S has a 1-year low of $118.03 and a 1-year high of $242.00.

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.41) by ($0.76). The firm had revenue of $250.71 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.91 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ascendis Pharma A/S will post -4.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Profile

Ascendis Pharma A/S is a Denmark‐based biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative therapies for rare endocrine diseases. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Hellerup, the company leverages its proprietary TransCon drug delivery platform to create long‐acting prodrugs designed to improve safety, efficacy and patient convenience. Ascendis Pharma maintains research and development operations in Europe and the United States, with clinical studies spanning North America, Europe and Asia.

The company’s lead product, lonapegsomatropin (Skytrofa®), is a once‐weekly growth hormone therapy approved by the U.S.