Baker BROS. Advisors LP Acquires New Stake in Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. $MPLT

Baker BROS. Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 364,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,406,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MPLT. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Blue Owl Capital Holdings LP purchased a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $5,745,000. Geode Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $6,835,000. Seven Grand Managers LLC bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $1,756,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $34,026,000.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Up 7.5%

Shares of NASDAQ MPLT opened at $29.21 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.71. Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $12.24 and a 52 week high of $33.28.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last issued its earnings results 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 research analysts expect that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -5.04 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group assumed coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price target on the stock. Lifesci Capital upgraded Maplight Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Maplight Therapeutics from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Needham & Company LLC began coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock. Finally, 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Maplight Therapeutics news, insider Erin Pennock Foff sold 4,438 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.54, for a total value of $126,660.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 346,059 shares in the company, valued at $9,876,523.86. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.24, for a total value of $298,327.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 356,256 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,060,669.44. The trade was a 2.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 495,244 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,461 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

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.