Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) Upgraded by Lifesci Capital to “Strong-Buy” Rating

Lifesci Capital upgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on MPLT. Weiss Ratings assumed coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. They set a “sell (e)” rating for the company. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group began coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, March 21st. Finally, HC Wainwright started coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, May 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 price target on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.43.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MPLT opened at $29.29 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.25 billion and a PE ratio of -0.74. Maplight Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $12.24 and a fifty-two week high of $33.28. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.02.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.91) by ($0.43). As a group, equities analysts predict that Maplight Therapeutics will post -3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 13,980 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.11, for a total transaction of $420,937.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,512,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,536,226.19. This trade represents a 0.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Vishwas Setia sold 10,564 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.24, for a total value of $298,327.36. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 356,256 shares in the company, valued at $10,060,669.44. The trade was a 2.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $441,168 and have sold 391,204 shares valued at $11,125,068. 3.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Maplight Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Orbimed Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $952,000. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $840,000. TD Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $649,000. Barclays PLC bought a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $464,000. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at $382,000.

About Maplight Therapeutics

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.