B.Riley FBR analyst Madhu Kumar reiterated a Buy rating on Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: APLS) today and set a price target of $40. The company’s shares opened today at $16.10.
Kumar observed:
“Yesterday after market close, 10/17/2018, Apellis Pharmaceuticals (APLS) disclosed a pause in dosing of the firm’s lead asset, complement C3 inhibitor APL-2, in Phase III studies in geographic atrophy (GA) and a Phase II trial in wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), because of an emergence of non-infectious inflammation in early treated patients. We do not consider this a material negative event to APLS shares, as the likely driver of the inflammation is a manufacturing lot issue that has been resolved in downstream lots, leaving us reasonably confident of trial restarts by YE18. We thus reiterate our APLS Buy rating and $40 PT.”
According to TipRanks.com, Kumar is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 18.0% and a 45.7% success rate. Kumar covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc, Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, and Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Currently, the analyst consensus on Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc is a Strong Buy with an average price target of $41.75, a 159.3% upside from current levels. In a report released yesterday, Cantor Fitzgerald also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $53 price target.
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The company has a one-year high of $32 and a one-year low of $12.45. Currently, Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc has an average volume of 238.3K.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 13 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of APLS in relation to earlier this year.
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Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which develops novel therapeutic compounds. It develops complement immunotherapies for the treatment of complement-dependent autoimmune and inflammatory diseases through APL-2 product.
