Stifel Nicolaus Upgrades Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DNLI) to Buy

Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DNLI) was upgraded by Stifel Nicolaus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $37.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price points to a potential upside of 59.35% from the company’s current price.

DNLI has been the topic of several other research reports. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Denali Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Denali Therapeutics from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded shares of Denali Therapeutics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Denali Therapeutics from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Denali Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.40.

Denali Therapeutics Stock Performance

Denali Therapeutics stock opened at $23.22 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $26.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.41 and a beta of 1.35. Denali Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $14.56 and a 1 year high of $33.33.

Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ:DNLI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.63) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.60) by ($0.03). During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.72) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Denali Therapeutics will post -2.71 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan J. Watts sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.69, for a total value of $1,107,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 235,807 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,529,495.83. This trade represents a 14.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Steve E. Krognes sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.03, for a total value of $870,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 29,096 shares in the company, valued at $844,656.88. This represents a 50.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 86,578 shares of company stock valued at $2,474,440 over the last 90 days. 7.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Denali Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in Denali Therapeutics by 3,234.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,831,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $228,128,000 after acquiring an additional 7,596,508 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Denali Therapeutics by 63.2% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,749,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,451,770 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Denali Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $24,454,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Denali Therapeutics by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,727,450 shares of the company’s stock valued at $312,491,000 after purchasing an additional 903,683 shares during the period. Finally, Integral Health Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Denali Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,546,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.92% of the company’s stock.

Denali Therapeutics Company Profile

Denali Therapeutics Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops a portfolio of product candidates engineered to cross the blood-brain barrier for neurodegenerative diseases and lysosomal storage diseases in the United States. The company’s transport vehicle (TV)-enabled programs include DNL310 ETV, an IDS enzyme replacement therapy program for MPS II; TAK-594/DNL593 which is in Phase 1/II for frontotemporal dementia-granulin; DNL126 program for MPS IIIA; and DNL622 for MPS I, as well as other preclinical programs that target amyloid beta and HER2.