Short Interest in Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) Decreases By 14.5%

Alector, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALEC) was the target of a large decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,020,000 shares, a decrease of 14.5% from the October 31st total of 4,700,000 shares. Approximately 5.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 744,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.4 days.

Insider Transactions at Alector

In other Alector news, CFO Marc Grasso sold 7,297 shares of Alector stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.88, for a total value of $35,609.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 130,740 shares in the company, valued at approximately $638,011.20. The trade was a 5.29 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sara Kenkare-Mitra sold 13,926 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.88, for a total value of $67,958.88. Following the sale, the insider now owns 291,715 shares in the company, valued at $1,423,569.20. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 47,722 shares of company stock valued at $232,883. 9.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Alector

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Alector in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Gladius Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Alector in the second quarter worth $29,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Alector during the third quarter worth $40,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Alector in the 1st quarter valued at $59,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Alector in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ALEC shares. HC Wainwright decreased their price objective on shares of Alector from $35.00 to $7.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Alector from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $10.00 to $3.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. BTIG Research dropped their price objective on shares of Alector from $16.00 to $5.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Alector in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Alector currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $8.40.

Alector Price Performance

ALEC opened at $2.59 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.98. Alector has a fifty-two week low of $2.37 and a fifty-two week high of $8.90. The company has a market cap of $253.65 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.52 and a beta of 0.66.

Alector (NASDAQ:ALEC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.43) EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.33 million. As a group, analysts expect that Alector will post -1.86 EPS for the current year.

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.