Brokerages Set Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) Price Target at $8.19

Shares of Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” by the fourteen brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $8.1875.

Several research firms recently weighed in on PLRX. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research report on Sunday, August 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Pliant Therapeutics from $17.00 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pliant Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PLRX. Cormorant Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at about $4,050,000. Woodline Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 1,875.0% in the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 2,514,084 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,394,000 after acquiring an additional 2,386,789 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics by 307.1% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,958,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,272,000 after acquiring an additional 1,477,336 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at about $1,642,000. Finally, Monaco Asset Management SAM purchased a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at about $815,000. 97.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pliant Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PLRX opened at $1.81 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $1.58 and a 200 day moving average of $1.49. The company has a current ratio of 12.99, a quick ratio of 12.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $111.12 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.53 and a beta of 1.40. Pliant Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $1.10 and a 12-month high of $16.10.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by ($0.09). On average, research analysts anticipate that Pliant Therapeutics will post -3.64 earnings per share for the current year.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.