Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) CEO Sells $295,310.40 in Stock

Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:MPLT) CEO Christopher Kroeger sold 10,472 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.20, for a total value of $295,310.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,604,521 shares in the company, valued at $45,247,492.20. This trade represents a 0.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Maplight Therapeutics Stock Down 6.2%

Shares of Maplight Therapeutics stock opened at $27.40 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $22.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.17 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.69. Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $12.24 and a 12-month high of $33.28.

Maplight Therapeutics (NASDAQ:MPLT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 26th. The company reported ($2.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.05) by ($1.42). As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Maplight Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MPLT shares. Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $35.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen started coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, April 7th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings began coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. They set a “sell (e)” rating on the stock. Finally, Needham & Company LLC assumed coverage on Maplight Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $37.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Maplight Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.43.

Key Stories Impacting Maplight Therapeutics

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

• Positive Sentiment: MapLight Therapeutics announced that management will participate in upcoming investor conferences, which can help keep the company visible to potential investors and may provide a near-term catalyst. MapLight Therapeutics to Participate in Upcoming Investor Conferences
• Positive Sentiment: Needham reiterated a Buy rating on MPLT, reinforcing Wall Street support for the stock and helping offset some of the recent negative sentiment. Needham Reaffirms Buy Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Recent analyst coverage elsewhere in the tape remained constructive, including Buy ratings and higher price targets, which supports the longer-term bullish case for MapLight Therapeutics. Analyst coverage summary
• Neutral Sentiment: The company’s recent earnings history remains mixed, with a prior quarterly loss wider than expected; this is still part of the backdrop but not the main driver of today’s move. MPLT earnings summary
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple insiders, including CEO Christopher Kroeger, CFO Vishwas Setia, and insiders James Woodruff Lillie and Erin Pennock Foff, sold shares over May 4–6. Although the sales were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, the cluster of transactions can weigh on sentiment and suggest near-term selling pressure. CEO Form 4 filing
• Negative Sentiment: The repeated insider sales may be contributing to the stock’s decline today, as investors often view sustained insider selling as a cautionary signal even when it is pre-planned. Insider sale filing

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maplight Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MPLT. Fcpm Iii Services B.V. purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $56,672,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $49,154,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $34,026,000. Nan Fung Group Holdings Ltd purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $17,060,000. Finally, 5AM Venture Management LLC purchased a new stake in Maplight Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth about $16,687,000.

Maplight Therapeutics Company Profile

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients suffering from debilitating central nervous system, or CNS, disorders. We were founded by globally recognized leaders in psychiatry and neuroscience research to address the lack of circuit-specific pharmacotherapies available for patients. Our discovery platform holds the potential to fill this void by identifying neural circuits causally linked to disease and targeting those circuits for therapeutic modulation.