Arturo Md Molina Sells 13,151 Shares of Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) Stock

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) insider Arturo Md Molina sold 13,151 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.42, for a total transaction of $1,083,905.42. Following the transaction, the insider owned 84,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,932,758.30. This trade represents a 13.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Arturo Md Molina also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, January 27th, Arturo Md Molina sold 5,000 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.00, for a total value of $410,000.00.
• On Tuesday, January 20th, Arturo Md Molina sold 9,514 shares of Protagonist Therapeutics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.48, for a total value of $784,714.72.

Protagonist Therapeutics Trading Down 1.6%

Protagonist Therapeutics stock opened at $81.76 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $86.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.48. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.70 and a 12 month high of $96.54. The company has a market capitalization of $5.11 billion, a PE ratio of 131.87 and a beta of 2.26.

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.62) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.59) by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $4.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.41 million. Protagonist Therapeutics had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 21.94%. As a group, analysts predict that Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Protagonist Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 813,995 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,990,000 after buying an additional 128,171 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at $6,641,000. Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Protagonist Therapeutics by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 305,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,289,000 after acquiring an additional 25,065 shares during the period. Nan Fung Trinity HK Ltd. bought a new position in Protagonist Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $7,464,000. Finally, Creative Planning grew its holdings in Protagonist Therapeutics by 74.3% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 30,204 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,669,000 after purchasing an additional 12,871 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.63% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Protagonist Therapeutics

Here are the key news stories impacting Protagonist Therapeutics this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support remains strong: several brokerages have raised price targets or reiterated buy/overweight ratings (Johnson Rice $112, Citizens Jmp $102, JPMorgan raised to overweight). That analyst momentum and a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating help cushion downside. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company fundamentals and outlook remain mixed — recent quarterly results missed revenue and EPS expectations, but PTGX is a clinical?stage biotech with late?stage programs (PTG?100) that could re?rate the stock on positive clinical/data news. No new clinical readouts were announced today. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large, clustered insider sales — CEO Dinesh Patel sold multiple tranches (including 4,068 shares on Jan. 27 and larger sales earlier this week), CFO Asif Ali sold 46,203 shares (reducing his stake ~43%), and director/insider Arturo Molina sold >18k shares across days. These sizeable officer-level sales are being viewed negatively and likely pressured the stock today. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: The CFO’s SEC filing shows the large Jan. 27 sale (46,203 shares) and is particularly notable because a near?half reduction by a finance officer can raise investor concern about insider conviction. Read More.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PTGX. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $82.00 price target on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Protagonist Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wedbush increased their price target on Protagonist Therapeutics from $70.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Protagonist Therapeutics from $98.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Protagonist Therapeutics from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Protagonist Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.77.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc (NASDAQ: PTGX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel, orally administered peptide-based therapies for immune-mediated and other serious diseases. The company leverages its proprietary Peptide 2.0 platform to design peptides that target G protein–coupled receptors and cytokine receptors, with the goal of combining the potency of biologics with the convenience of oral administration. Protagonist’s approach aims to address unmet medical needs in areas where injectable therapies have been the standard of care.

Among its lead programs is PTG-100, an oral ?4?7 integrin antagonist intended to block leukocyte migration to the gut in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.