Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) gapped down prior to trading on Friday after Oppenheimer lowered their price target on the stock from $190.00 to $180.00. The stock had previously closed at $124.28, but opened at $118.98. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Ascendis Pharma A/S shares last traded at $132.58, with a volume of 236,707 shares changing hands.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on ASND. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $191.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S from $178.00 to $207.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $170.00 price objective on shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Ascendis Pharma A/S from $174.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ascendis Pharma A/S from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.31.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Ascendis Pharma A/S in the 1st quarter valued at about $288,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 9.9% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 4,025 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $608,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its position in shares of Ascendis Pharma A/S by 1.1% during the first quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 4,075,214 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $616,050,000 after buying an additional 44,580 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 1,461.1% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 250,492 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $37,849,000 after buying an additional 234,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ascendis Pharma A/S by 61.0% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 876 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 332 shares in the last quarter.

Ascendis Pharma A/S Trading Up 4.1 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.85 billion, a PE ratio of -14.04 and a beta of 0.66. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $132.80.

Ascendis Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ASND) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, September 3rd. The biotechnology company reported ($2.05) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.54) by ($0.51). The business had revenue of $38.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $94.74 million. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ascendis Pharma A/S will post -7.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ascendis Pharma A/S

Ascendis Pharma A/S, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing therapies for unmet medical needs. It offers SKYTROFA for treating patients with growth hormone deficiency (GHD). The company is also developing a pipeline of three independent endocrinology rare disease product candidates in clinical development, as well as focuses on advancing oncology therapeutic candidates.