Analysts Set Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) Target Price at $37.78

Shares of Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) have received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.7778.

MPLT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Maplight Therapeutics from $28.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group began coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen cut Maplight Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 21st. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $48.00 price target for the company. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Maplight Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Down 8.6%

MPLT stock opened at $27.75 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.46. Maplight Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $12.24 and a 12-month high of $33.28. The firm has a market cap of $1.18 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.68.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.91) by ($0.43). Research analysts expect that Maplight Therapeutics will post -5.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Kroeger sold 118,235 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.19, for a total value of $3,214,809.65. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,394,094 shares in the company, valued at $37,905,415.86. This trade represents a 7.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 Jonathan Gillis sold 51,900 shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.74, for a total transaction of $1,543,506.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 199,154 shares in the company, valued at $5,922,839.96. This represents a 20.67% 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 495,244 shares of company stock valued at $14,079,461. 3.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MPLT. Fcpm Iii Services B.V. purchased a new stake in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $56,672,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $49,168,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Maplight Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $34,026,000. Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at $17,060,000. Finally, 5AM Venture Management LLC purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $16,687,000.

Maplight Therapeutics Company Profile

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.