Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on RPRX. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Royalty Pharma from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Royalty Pharma in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Bank of America reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Royalty Pharma in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Royalty Pharma from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.29.

Royalty Pharma Stock Performance

Shares of RPRX stock opened at $58.37 on Friday. Royalty Pharma has a 12-month low of $34.79 and a 12-month high of $64.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $54.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 2.80 and a quick ratio of 2.80.

Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ:RPRX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.05. Royalty Pharma had a return on equity of 30.01% and a net margin of 32.14%.The firm had revenue of $674.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $758.93 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Royalty Pharma will post 5.32 EPS for the current year.

Royalty Pharma Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.2350 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. Royalty Pharma’s dividend payout ratio is currently 64.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Royalty Pharma news, EVP Christopher Hite sold 100,000 shares of Royalty Pharma stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.53, for a total value of $5,853,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 270,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,826,570.53. The trade was a 27.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Marshall Urist sold 9,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.88, for a total value of $508,452.12. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 209,099 shares of company stock valued at $12,358,452 over the last 90 days. 18.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Royalty Pharma

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Royalty Pharma by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 31,104,309 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,201,870,000 after buying an additional 3,891,615 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Royalty Pharma by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,719,843 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $297,465,000 after acquiring an additional 102,430 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Royalty Pharma by 29.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,495,846 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $167,696,000 after acquiring an additional 786,921 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Royalty Pharma by 15.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,088,773 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $148,168,000 after acquiring an additional 409,394 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Royalty Pharma during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $131,923,000. 54.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Royalty Pharma Company Profile

Royalty Pharma plc is a biopharmaceutical royalty company that provides funding to life sciences companies in exchange for rights to receive future royalty payments from commercialized or late-stage therapies. Rather than developing and marketing medicines itself, the company invests in pharmaceutical and biotechnology innovations and seeks to generate income from the resulting royalty streams.

Its portfolio is linked to a range of therapies across areas including oncology, immunology, neuroscience, rare diseases and other specialty markets.