Roth Capital analysts reiterated its Buy rating on Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) in a note to investors, making it one of the more closely watched stocks on Wall Street. With a rating of Buy on the shares, the company has a 52-week high of $139.79. As a means of comparison, a number of other analysts have issued reports on the stock in recent days, and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. has secured a consensus one-year price target of $140.33, above the opening price of $116.29. Usually, after analysts give a “reiterated rating” report on a stock, they will subsequently issue other revisions, such as a price target change.
U.S. stocks closed higher Tuesday as investors anticipate the results of meetings from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.05% rose 9.79 points, or less than 0.1%, to close at 18,129.96.
The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.03% advanced 0.64 points to finish at 2,139.76, led by gains in the health-care and consumer-staples sectors.
The Nasdaq Composite index COMP, +0.12% gained 6.33 points, or 0.1%, to close at 5,241.35.
Yesterday Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) shares last traded at $117.14, which represents a jump of $1.54 over the previous closing price. Opening at $116.29, they varied from $115.52 and $117.85 throughout the day.
Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) now has a market cap of 2.44B.
283,130 shares traded hands yesterday, 107 percent below normal, out of a total float 19,057,000. Look for trading volume to pick up in the coming days as momentum traders often use increases in trading volume to identify substantial volume growth or distribution by institutional investors.
However, a single day of significant buy side trading is not enough to assert a trend. As such, market traders will continue to watch for institutional sponsorship as a signal that financial institutions are moving forward.
Institutional sponsorship is defined by ownership of a stock by mutual funds, banks, pension funds and other large institutions.
These professional investors have substantial teams of analysts that research thousands of stocks. Thus, watching their interests is a good way to make sure you are buying the right stocks.
By identifying trends, moving averages allow investors to make those trends work in their favor and increase the number of winning trades.
With that in mind, Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LGND) now has a 50-day MA of $112.68 and 200-day MA of $116.64. It has traded in a 52-week range between $79.66 – 139.79 and today’s last price is 0.16% lower than the 52 week high of $139.79.
Indeed, earnings growth is among the most crucial things to look at in regards to stock investing and, accordingly, investors look for companies that have increased their earnings at least 25% or more over a 3 year period.
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