Brokerages Set Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) PT at $3.75

Shares of Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the seven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $3.75.

Several research firms recently weighed in on ALEC. HC Wainwright dropped their price objective on Alector from $35.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Stifel Nicolaus cut Alector from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $4.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, December 16th. BTIG Research decreased their price objective on shares of Alector from $16.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Alector from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $10.00 to $3.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Mizuho downgraded shares of Alector from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $9.00 to $2.50 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th.

Alector Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of ALEC opened at $1.73 on Wednesday. Alector has a 52-week low of $1.60 and a 52-week high of $7.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.27. The company has a market capitalization of $169.42 million, a PE ratio of -1.02 and a beta of 0.57.

Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.43) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by $0.10. Alector had a negative net margin of 257.54% and a negative return on equity of 108.77%. The company had revenue of $15.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.33 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Alector will post -1.88 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Alector

In other news, CEO Arnon Rosenthal sold 52,172 shares of Alector stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.52, for a total value of $131,473.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,507,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,317,826.48. The trade was a 2.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Sara Kenkare-Mitra sold 26,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.52, for a total value of $66,780.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 565,215 shares in the company, valued at $1,424,341.80. This trade represents a 4.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 95,161 shares of company stock worth $239,806 over the last ninety days. 9.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Alector

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Alector by 64.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,728,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,716,000 after buying an additional 1,072,298 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC grew its position in Alector by 73.1% during the second quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC now owns 92,218 shares of the company’s stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 38,947 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its position in Alector by 54.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 19,117 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 6,723 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Alector by 132.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 176,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $824,000 after acquiring an additional 100,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Alector by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 154,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $722,000 after purchasing an additional 30,180 shares during the period. 85.83% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Alector

Alector, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies for the treatment of neurodegeneration diseases. Its products include AL001, an immune activity in the brain with genetic links to multiple neurodegenerative disorders, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diseases; and AL101 that is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.