PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTCT) Trading Up 8.3% – Here’s Why

PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTCT)’s stock price traded up 8.3% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $79.60 and last traded at $79.3320. Approximately 861,446 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 34% from the average daily volume of 1,304,292 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.27.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PTCT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on PTC Therapeutics from $86.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup upgraded PTC Therapeutics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $75.00 to $108.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of PTC Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded PTC Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $76.00 to $85.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of PTC Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, PTC Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.36.

PTC Therapeutics Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $71.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $71.88. The stock has a market cap of $6.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -33.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.56.

PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTCT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.45) by $0.42. The business had revenue of $272.55 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $217.42 million. PTC Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 22.58% and a negative return on equity of 362.45%. PTC Therapeutics’s revenue was up 43.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $10.04 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that PTC Therapeutics, Inc. will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Neil Gregory Almstead sold 52,003 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.04, for a total transaction of $3,590,287.12. Following the transaction, the insider owned 60,137 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,151,858.48. This trade represents a 46.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal 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, insider Eric Pauwels sold 21,277 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $1,595,775.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 73,411 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,505,825. The trade was a 22.47% decrease in their position. 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 90 days, insiders sold 98,148 shares of company stock worth $7,001,475. Insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of PTC Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Defilade Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of PTC Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,628,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its holdings in PTC Therapeutics by 287.4% during the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 195,380 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $13,311,000 after purchasing an additional 144,949 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in PTC Therapeutics by 31.8% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,886,841 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $128,550,000 after purchasing an additional 455,284 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of PTC Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $566,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of PTC Therapeutics by 48.3% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 7,193,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $489,997,000 after buying an additional 2,342,101 shares during the last quarter.

PTC Therapeutics Company Profile

PTC Therapeutics, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecule and biologic therapies for the treatment of rare genetic disorders. Since its founding in 1998, PTC has dedicated its efforts to addressing high unmet medical needs by targeting underlying genetic causes of disease. The company’s research platform emphasizes mechanisms such as nonsense suppression and RNA modulation, enabling the development of novel treatments for conditions with limited therapeutic options.

Among PTC’s approved products is Translarna (ataluren), a first-in-class therapy designed to treat nonsense mutation Duchenne muscular dystrophy in select markets.