Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) Holdings Raised by Artisan Partners Limited Partnership

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,988,796 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,470 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned approximately 1.23% of Alkermes worth $57,198,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ALKS. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 9,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,000 after buying an additional 384 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Alkermes by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 75,394 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,168,000 after purchasing an additional 828 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 106.2% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 842 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Alkermes in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Alkermes by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 30,950 shares of the company’s stock valued at $890,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Alkermes news, EVP Craig C. Hopkinson sold 100,918 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.05, for a total value of $3,234,421.90. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 44,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,419,494.50. This represents a 69.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 4.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Alkermes from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Alkermes in a report on Thursday, March 13th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Alkermes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Alkermes from $40.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Alkermes from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $21.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.38.

Alkermes Stock Performance

Shares of ALKS stock opened at $33.53 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.22. Alkermes plc has a twelve month low of $22.90 and a twelve month high of $36.45. The company has a market capitalization of $5.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.45, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.62.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.11. Alkermes had a return on equity of 30.80% and a net margin of 23.57%. On average, analysts forecast that Alkermes plc will post 1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Alkermes Company Profile

Alkermes plc, a biopharmaceutical company, researches, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products to address unmet medical needs of patients in therapeutic areas in the United States, Ireland, and internationally. It has a portfolio of proprietary commercial products for the treatment of alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, schizophrenia and bipolar I disorder and a pipeline of clinical and preclinical product candidates in development for neurological disorders.