Brokerages Set Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH) Price Target at $17.67

Shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH) (TSE:AUP) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.6667.

A number of research firms recently commented on AUPH. Zacks Research downgraded Aurinia Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Kevin Tang acquired 343,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $15.28 per share, for a total transaction of $5,250,513.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 12,838,101 shares in the company, valued at approximately $196,166,183.28. This trade represents a 2.75% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have purchased 814,606 shares of company stock worth $12,455,129 in the last three months. 10.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aurinia Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in Aurinia Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at about $729,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its stake in Aurinia Pharmaceuticals by 206.2% during the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 258,816 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,128,000 after acquiring an additional 174,301 shares in the last quarter. Cvfg LLC acquired a new position in Aurinia Pharmaceuticals during the first quarter worth about $1,000,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals by 4.6% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,663,835 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,658,000 after acquiring an additional 73,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in shares of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter worth about $1,340,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 36.83% of the company’s stock.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $15.18 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $15.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.37. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $10.34 and a one year high of $19.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 5.42 and a quick ratio of 4.97. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a PE ratio of 6.63 and a beta of 1.42.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) (TSE:AUP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $58.57 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.45 million. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 26.11% and a net margin of 100.84%. As a group, research analysts expect that Aurinia Pharmaceuticals will post 0.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc is a clinical?stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for autoimmune diseases. The company’s proprietary molecule, voclosporin, is designed to selectively inhibit calcineurin and reduce inflammation associated with autoimmune responses. Aurinia operates research and development facilities in Canada and the United States, leveraging collaborations with academic institutions and contract research organizations to advance its clinical pipeline.

The company’s lead product, voclosporin (marketed as LUPKYNIS), received approval from the U.S.