Pliant Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:PLRX) saw an upside of 11.73% to $16.29 after adding $1.71 on Tuesday. The 5-day average trading volume is 879,783 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $17.50 in the past week and touched a new high 2 times within the past 5 days. An average of 559,226 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 606,364.
PLRX’s 1-month performance is 0.18% or $0.22 on its low of $14.47 reached on 09/25/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $14.47 and high of $36.64, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 01/27/23. YTD, PLRX has lost -15.73% or -$2.85 and has reached a new high 6 times. However, the current price is down -55.54% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
PLRX stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Aug 04.Hull Hans (Chief Business Officer) most recently sold 20,050 shares at $20.01 per share on Aug 04. This transaction cost the insider $401,201. Chief Business Officer, Hull Hans, sold 13,069 shares at a price of $20.00 on Aug 03. Then, on Jul 20, General Counsel & Corp. Sec’y Ouimette Mike sold 4,755 shares at a price of $17.55 per share. This transaction amounted to $83,450.
Valuation Metrics
PLRX stock has a beta of 1.30. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 193.76 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 1.81.
Pliant Therapeutics Inc’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 19.16, with the current ratio over the same period at 19.16. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 0.02, while the total debt to equity was 0.03. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 15.50%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is -1275.36% while for the period ending June 29, Pliant Therapeutics Inc’s operating margin was -3158.34%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $136.88 million against revenue of $9.69 million.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income grew 28.26% to -$41.19 million, while revenue of -$37.55 million was 8.84% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected PLRX to announce -$0.71 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted -$0.7, representing a 1.40% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than -$50.78 million. PLRX stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 shows that total liabilities totaled 41.83 million, with total debt at $14.54 million. Shareholders hold equity totaling $59.83 million.
Let’s look briefly at Pliant Therapeutics Inc (PLRX) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 25 September was 53.46% to suggest the stock is trending Neutral, with historical volatility in this time period at 77.37%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $15.67, reflecting a -0.66% or -$0.11 change from its current price. PLRX is currently trading -0.42% above its 20-day SMA, -31.05% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -7.62% and SMA200 by-8.29%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 23.91% and 20.47% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 0.91. The RSI (14) points at 49.62%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 66.34% with the period’s ATR at 0.82. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -0.59 and -0.81 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Pliant Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PLRX), Canaccord Genuity launched coverage with a Buy rating. Analysts offering their rating for PLRX stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Buy. Currently, 0 brokerage advisors rate PLRX as a “sell,”, while 0 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 1 rates the stock as overweight while 13 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is PLRX’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $35.00 and a high of $63.00, with their median price target at $48.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Pliant Therapeutics Inc (PLRX) stock is $48.08.
