Citigroup Has Lowered Expectations for Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) Stock Price

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) had its target price dropped by stock analysts at Citigroup from $4.00 to $1.50 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Citigroup’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 7.53% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Pliant Therapeutics from $4.00 to $3.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday. Leerink Partners downgraded shares of Pliant Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $2.00 in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Pliant Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.31.

Pliant Therapeutics Stock Up 1.1 %

Pliant Therapeutics stock traded up $0.02 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $1.40. The stock had a trading volume of 3,507,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 794,361. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 10.26 and a quick ratio of 10.26. The company has a market cap of $84.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.42 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $9.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.81. Pliant Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $1.29 and a 52 week high of $16.81.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 3rd. The company reported ($0.82) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.99) by $0.17. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Pliant Therapeutics will post -3.64 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Pliant Therapeutics

In other Pliant Therapeutics news, CEO Bernard Coulie sold 52,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total value of $587,092.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 430,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,821,790.40. This trade represents a 10.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Hans Hull sold 15,936 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total transaction of $178,483.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 211,558 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,369,449.60. This represents a 7.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 91,855 shares of company stock worth $1,026,628. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Pliant Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 1,299.0% in the fourth quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC now owns 5,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 5,196 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets acquired a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth $99,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $108,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Pliant Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $112,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.30% of the company’s stock.

Pliant Therapeutics Company Profile

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.