Handelsbanken Fonder AB Sells 3,600 Shares of Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lowered its holdings in Alkermes plc (NASDAQ:ALKS) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 217,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,600 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned approximately 0.13% of Alkermes worth $6,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its holdings in Alkermes by 365.5% in the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,882,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,704,000 after purchasing an additional 1,478,422 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Alkermes by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 899,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,877,000 after buying an additional 21,821 shares in the last quarter. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Alkermes in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $16,126,000. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of Alkermes by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 464,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,365,000 after buying an additional 1,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Alkermes by 108.8% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 423,931 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,867,000 after buying an additional 220,893 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Alkermes from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. HC Wainwright restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Alkermes in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Alkermes from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Alkermes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $25.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Alkermes from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two equities 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.36.

Alkermes Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ALKS opened at $35.33 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $30.89 and its 200-day moving average is $29.07. Alkermes plc has a 52 week low of $22.90 and a 52 week high of $36.45. The firm has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.49.

Alkermes (NASDAQ:ALKS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.11. Alkermes had a net margin of 23.57% and a return on equity of 30.80%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Alkermes plc will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alkermes

In other news, SVP Christian Todd Nichols sold 5,208 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.15, for a total value of $151,813.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 60,703 shares in the company, valued at $1,769,492.45. This represents a 7.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Craig C. Hopkinson sold 144,419 shares of Alkermes stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.53, for a total transaction of $5,131,207.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 57,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,056,298.75. This represents a 71.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 323,608 shares of company stock valued at $10,854,725. Corporate insiders own 4.89% of the company’s stock.

About Alkermes

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.