New York State Teachers Retirement System Makes New Investment in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)

New York State Teachers Retirement System bought a new position in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 49,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,370,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought a new position in shares of Alkermes in the 1st quarter valued at $4,369,000. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 132.4% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 32,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $862,000 after purchasing an additional 18,667 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 24.0% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,571 shares of the company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 2,044 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in shares of Alkermes in the first quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Alkermes by 660.7% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 21,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $576,000 after buying an additional 19,060 shares during the last quarter. 95.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Alkermes

In other news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 10,417 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.10, for a total value of $292,717.70. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 65,911 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,099.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 4.76% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on ALKS shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Alkermes from $42.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective on shares of Alkermes in a report on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com downgraded Alkermes from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. UBS Group lowered Alkermes from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $25.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Alkermes from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.25.

Alkermes Price Performance

ALKS stock opened at $24.01 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.86 and a quick ratio of 2.50. The company’s 50-day moving average is $27.96 and its 200-day moving average is $27.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a PE ratio of 11.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.55. Alkermes plc has a 1 year low of $22.01 and a 1 year high of $33.71.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.29). The firm had revenue of $377.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $362.78 million. Alkermes had a return on equity of 16.10% and a net margin of 21.39%. The firm’s revenue was up 23.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.02) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Alkermes plc will post 2.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alkermes declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, February 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 8.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Alkermes

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.