Insider Selling: Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) CEO Sells 52,419 Shares of Stock

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) CEO Bernard Coulie sold 52,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.20, for a total transaction of $587,092.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 430,517 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,821,790.40. This represents a 10.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Pliant Therapeutics Stock Performance

PLRX stock opened at $10.92 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 10.26, a current ratio of 10.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $10.22 and a twelve month high of $18.92. The business’s fifty day moving average is $13.14 and its 200-day moving average is $13.05. The company has a market cap of $664.48 million, a P/E ratio of -3.27 and a beta of 1.05.

Pliant Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PLRX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.95) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.99) by $0.04. Equities research analysts forecast that Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.65 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Pliant Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in Pliant Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $112,000. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C bought a new position in Pliant Therapeutics during the second quarter worth about $126,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Pliant Therapeutics by 65.0% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock valued at $131,000 after acquiring an additional 4,607 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Pliant Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $145,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $38.00 target price on shares of Pliant Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Pliant Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $40.50.

About Pliant Therapeutics

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of fibrosis and related diseases in the United States. The company's lead candidate is bexotegrast, an oral, small-molecule, dual selective inhibitor of avß6 and avß1 integrins, which is in phase 2b trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and in phase 2a trial for primary sclerosing cholangitis.