Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARWR) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARWR) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $87.80.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ARWR shares. Weiss Ratings cut Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley raised Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from $35.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, May 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $88.00 price target for the company.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $74.95 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $10.56 billion, a PE ratio of -34.86 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day moving average of $67.81 and a 200 day moving average of $63.47. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $14.30 and a 52 week high of $82.26. The company has a quick ratio of 6.23, a current ratio of 6.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARWR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.93) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.10) by $0.17. The company had revenue of $73.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $73.84 million. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 55.09% and a negative net margin of 48.38%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 86.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.75 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals will post -2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Hongbo Lu sold 2,970 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.88, for a total transaction of $228,333.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 52,012 shares in the company, valued at $3,998,682.56. The trade was a 5.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider James C. Hamilton sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $750,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 226,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,021,850. The trade was a 4.22% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 36,065 shares of company stock valued at $2,554,562 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ARWR. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals by 30.2% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 45,239 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $576,000 after purchasing an additional 10,496 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter valued at about $514,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals by 34.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,741,666 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $22,189,000 after buying an additional 447,456 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals by 6.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 15,252 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $194,000 after buying an additional 979 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth increased its position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals by 1,339.5% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 16,252 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 15,123 shares in the last quarter. 62.61% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. Since its founding in 2008, Arrowhead has leveraged its proprietary delivery platform—known internally as the Advanced RNAi Compound (ARC) technology—to silence disease-causing genes in patients suffering from genetically defined diseases. The company’s approach aims to offer durable, targeted treatments across a range of therapeutic areas.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple candidates in various stages of development.