Norges Bank Invests $47.42 Million in Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 3,916,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,424,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 76.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 10,057,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,747,000 after buying an additional 4,361,799 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 66.9% in the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 5,731,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,405,000 after acquiring an additional 2,296,691 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC increased its position in Elanco Animal Health by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 12,032,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,711,000 after purchasing an additional 1,454,082 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Elanco Animal Health during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $19,708,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 40.4% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 4,224,997 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,165,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214,992 shares during the last quarter. 97.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on ELAN. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays decreased their price target on Elanco Animal Health from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $14.00 to $13.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Elanco Animal Health from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Elanco Animal Health currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.17.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lawrence Erik Kurzius acquired 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $10.20 per share, with a total value of $102,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 111,459 shares in the company, valued at $1,136,881.80. This trade represents a 9.86 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Elanco Animal Health Stock Down 5.7 %

Shares of NYSE:ELAN opened at $9.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 2.55. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated has a 52-week low of $8.80 and a 52-week high of $18.80. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.30. The firm has a market cap of $4.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.91, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Elanco Animal Health had a return on equity of 6.78% and a net margin of 4.60%. Elanco Animal Health’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.08 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Elanco Animal Health Incorporated will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Elanco Animal Health Company 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.