Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN)

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) by 25.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 15,800 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,500 shares during the quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Elanco Animal Health were worth $235,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,046,000. Phocas Financial Corp. purchased a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,857,000. Ancora Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the third quarter valued at approximately $37,189,000. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 78.2% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 681,905 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,665,000 after purchasing an additional 299,166 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 210.9% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,015,294 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,412,000 after purchasing an additional 688,779 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Elanco Animal Health news, Director R David Hoover acquired 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $16.14 per share, for a total transaction of $322,800.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 185,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,985,900. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Elanco Animal Health Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ELAN traded down $0.62 during trading on Friday, hitting $12.95. 5,742,048 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,557,223. The company has a market cap of $6.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.18, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated has a 1 year low of $7.88 and a 1 year high of $16.88. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $15.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $13.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 2.75 and a quick ratio of 1.35.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 26th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.02). Elanco Animal Health had a positive return on equity of 6.44% and a negative net margin of 27.87%. The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. Elanco Animal Health’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Elanco Animal Health Incorporated will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ELAN. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Elanco Animal Health from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $13.00 to $20.00 in a report on Friday, January 5th. TheStreet raised shares of Elanco Animal Health from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $12.50 to $14.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.71.

Elanco Animal Health Profile

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, an animal health company, innovates, develops, manufactures, and markets products for pets and farm animals. It offers pet health disease prevention products, such as parasiticide and vaccine products that protect pets from worms, fleas, and ticks under the Seresto, Advantage, Advantix, and Advocate brands; pet health therapeutics for pain, osteoarthritis, ear infections, cardiovascular, and dermatology indications in canines and felines under the Galliprant and Claro brands; vaccines, antibiotics, parasiticides, and other products for use in poultry and aquaculture production, as well as nutritional health products, including enzymes, probiotics, and prebiotics; and a range of vaccines, antibiotics, implants, parasiticides, and other products used in ruminant and swine production under the Rumensin and Baytril brands.