The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires 29,121 Shares of Kodiak Sciences Inc. $KOD

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in Kodiak Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:KOD) by 31.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 120,629 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 29,121 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.19% of Kodiak Sciences worth $4,598,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Baker BROS. Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Kodiak Sciences by 15.1% in the fourth quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 19,919,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,940,000 after purchasing an additional 2,608,696 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Kodiak Sciences by 18.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,313,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,683,000 after buying an additional 363,103 shares in the last quarter. Braidwell LP bought a new stake in Kodiak Sciences during the fourth quarter worth $57,955,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its holdings in Kodiak Sciences by 55.1% during the second quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 2,055,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,668,000 after buying an additional 730,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in Kodiak Sciences by 108.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,732,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,427,000 after buying an additional 899,572 shares during the last quarter. 89.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on KOD. Chardan Capital raised Kodiak Sciences from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $14.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kodiak Sciences in a research report on Friday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Kodiak Sciences from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Kodiak Sciences from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.14.

Kodiak Sciences Stock Up 4.1%

KOD opened at $45.40 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.34. Kodiak Sciences Inc. has a twelve month low of $7.68 and a twelve month high of $47.84. The company has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.89 and a beta of 2.21.

Kodiak Sciences (NASDAQ:KOD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.94) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.93) by ($0.01). On average, sell-side analysts expect that Kodiak Sciences Inc. will post -3.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kodiak Sciences Profile

Kodiak Sciences, Inc is a clinical?stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, that focuses on the discovery and development of novel therapies for retinal diseases. The company’s proprietary technology centers on antibody biopolymer conjugates (ABCs), which are designed to extend durability, enhance tissue penetration and improve the safety profile of existing therapeutic modalities. Kodiak’s research and development efforts target conditions such as wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) and other serious ophthalmic disorders.

The lead product candidate in Kodiak’s pipeline is KSI-301, an anti-VEGF antibody biopolymer conjugate administered via intravitreal injection.