Investors Buy High Volume of Applied Therapeutics Put Options (NASDAQ:APLT)

Applied Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLT) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 34,641 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 968% compared to the average daily volume of 3,244 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Therapeutics by 37.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 10,541,528 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,656,000 after purchasing an additional 2,893,323 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Applied Therapeutics by 123.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,694,607 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,404,000 after acquiring an additional 2,038,724 shares during the last quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Therapeutics during the second quarter worth approximately $3,414,000. Ally Bridge Group NY LLC acquired a new position in Applied Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $5,256,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Applied Therapeutics by 165.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 735,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,249,000 after buying an additional 457,940 shares during the last quarter. 98.31% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. William Blair raised Applied Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Applied Therapeutics from $14.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Applied Therapeutics from $13.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Leerink Partners boosted their price target on shares of Applied Therapeutics from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Applied Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $4.00 in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $8.80.

Applied Therapeutics Trading Down 76.3 %

Shares of APLT opened at $2.03 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $236.21 million, a P/E ratio of -1.26 and a beta of 2.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $8.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.44. Applied Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $1.85 and a 12-month high of $10.62.

About Applied Therapeutics

Applied Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of a pipeline of novel product candidates against validated molecular targets in indications of high unmet medical need in the United States. The company's lead product candidate is AT-007 (also called govorestat) that has completed phase 3 for the treatment of galactosemia in healthy volunteers and adults, in pediatric clinical study for the treatment of galactosemia in kids, for treating enzyme sorbitol dehydrogenase, and for the treatment of phosphomannomutase enzyme-CDG.