Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RYTM) Insider Alastair Garfield Sells 7,763 Shares

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RYTM) insider Alastair Garfield sold 7,763 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.57, for a total transaction of $912,695.91. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 2,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $269,823.15. The trade was a 77.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $115.44 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $106.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $96.47. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52-week low of $74.50 and a 52-week high of $122.20. The company has a market cap of $7.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -37.12 and a beta of 1.92.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RYTM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.73) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.81) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $71.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $67.66 million. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 85.59% and a negative return on equity of 159.87%. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’s revenue for the quarter was up 46.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.75) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rhythm Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RYTM. RA Capital Management L.P. lifted its position in Rhythm Pharmaceuticals by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 6,666,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $713,618,000 after acquiring an additional 985,478 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Rhythm Pharmaceuticals by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,210,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $664,816,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214,489 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at about $683,601,000. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in shares of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth about $351,838,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals by 8.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,198,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $235,340,000 after purchasing an additional 169,964 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RYTM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Rhythm Pharmaceuticals from $141.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $154.00 price target on Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, July 17th. National Bank Financial set a $160.00 price target on Rhythm Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals from $144.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, June 15th. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $142.44.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical?stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing targeted therapies for rare genetic diseases of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. The company’s research focuses on the melanocortin?4 receptor (MC4R) pathway, which plays a central role in regulating appetite, energy expenditure and body weight. Using proprietary peptide technology, Rhythm aims to provide precision treatments to patients with specific genetic variants that disrupt normal weight regulation.

The company’s lead investigational product, setmelanotide, is a selective MC4R agonist designed to restore signaling in patients with deficiencies in genes such as POMC, LEPR and PCSK1.