Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) Short Interest Up 54.9% in October

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 718,000 shares, an increase of 54.9% from the September 30th total of 463,500 shares. Approximately 4.2% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 135,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. HC Wainwright reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $57.00 price objective on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Rigel Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $31.13.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 1.9 %

RIGL stock traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $14.16. 101,869 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 150,018. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.54. Rigel Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $7.21 and a twelve month high of $17.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $248.62 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.37) by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $36.84 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.38 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.40) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Rigel Pharmaceuticals will post -0.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Rigel Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RIGL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at $7,148,000. Ground Swell Capital LLC acquired a new position in Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth about $141,000. Bayesian Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 167.8% during the first quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 30,480 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 19,100 shares during the period. CM Management LLC boosted its holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals by 17.6% during the first quarter. CM Management LLC now owns 2,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $2,960,000 after purchasing an additional 300,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of Rigel Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $2,012,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.23% of the company's stock.

About Rigel Pharmaceuticals

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, engages in discovering, developing, and providing therapies that enhance the lives of patients with hematologic disorders and cancer. The company's commercialized products include Tavalisse, an oral spleen tyrosine kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia; Rezlidhia, a non-intensive monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a susceptible isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation as detected by an FDA-approved test; and GAVRETO, a once daily, small molecule, oral, kinase inhibitor for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic rearranged during transfection (RET) fusion-positive non-small cell lung cancer, as well as for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive thyroid cancer.