Pliant Therapeutics (PLRX) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. It also develops PLN-1474, an oral, small-molecule selective inhibitor of avß1 for the treatment of liver fibrosis associated with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; PLN-101095, a dual inhibitor of integrins avß8 and avß1 for the treatment of solid tumors; and PLN-101325 for treatment of muscular dystrophies. Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in South San Francisco, California.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $1.37 to $3.25
• 50-Day Range: $1.38 to $14.03
• 52-Week Range: $1.37 to $16.81
• Volume: 19.44 million shs
• Average Volume: 783,010 shs
• Market Capitalization: $83.98 million
• P/E Ratio: N/A
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Price Target: $13.88
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Pliant Therapeutics Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Pliant Therapeutics scored higher than 95% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 36th out of 942 stocks in the medical sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Pliant Therapeutics has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.33, and is based on 2 buy ratings, 9 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Pliant Therapeutics has been the subject of 10 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 0.6 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: Decreasing

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Pliant Therapeutics are expected to decrease in the coming year, from ($3.64) to ($3.72) per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Pliant Therapeutics is -0.41, which means that its earnings are negative and its P/E ratio cannot be compared to companies with positive earnings.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Pliant Therapeutics is -0.41, which means that its earnings are negative and its P/E ratio cannot be compared to companies with positive earnings.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Pliant Therapeutics has a P/B Ratio of 0.17. P/B Ratios below 1 indicate that a company could be undervalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 4.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

6.21% of the float of Pliant Therapeutics has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Pliant Therapeutics has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.4, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Pliant Therapeutics has recently decreased by 51.04%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: N/A

Dividend Yield

Pliant Therapeutics does not currently pay a dividend.

Dividend Growth

Pliant Therapeutics does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 4.7 / 5
• Environmental Score: -0.73

Percentage of Shares Shorted

6.21% of the float of Pliant Therapeutics has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Pliant Therapeutics has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.4, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Pliant Therapeutics has recently decreased by 51.04%, indicating that investor sentiment is improving significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 2.2 / 5
• News Sentiment: -0.03

News Sentiment

Pliant Therapeutics has a news sentiment score of -0.03. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.70 average news sentiment score of Medical companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 18 news articles for Pliant Therapeutics this week, compared to 4 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

16 people have searched for PLRX on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 167% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

9 people have added Pliant Therapeutics to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 2.5 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Pliant Therapeutics insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $1,026,628.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 6.40% of the stock of Pliant Therapeutics is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

97.30% of the stock of Pliant Therapeutics is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

PLRX Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have PLRX shares performed this year?

Pliant Therapeutics' stock was trading at $13.17 at the start of the year. Since then, PLRX shares have decreased by 89.5% and is now trading at $1.38.
View the best growth stocks for 2025 here.

How were Pliant Therapeutics' earnings last quarter?

Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLRX) posted its earnings results on Monday, March, 3rd. The company reported ($0.82) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.98) by $0.16.

When did Pliant Therapeutics IPO?

Pliant Therapeutics (PLRX) raised $90 million in an initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday, June 3rd 2020. The company issued 6,000,000 shares at $14.00-$16.00 per share. Citigroup, Cowen and Piper Sandler served as the underwriters for the IPO and Needham & Company was co-manager.

Who are Pliant Therapeutics' major shareholders?

Top institutional shareholders of Pliant Therapeutics include Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD (7.62%), Vanguard Group Inc. (5.31%), Paradigm Biocapital Advisors LP (5.25%) and Redmile Group LLC (4.76%). Insiders that own company stock include Bernard Coulie, Keith Lamont Cummings, Eric Lefebvre, Hans Hull and Mike Ouimette.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Pliant Therapeutics?

Shares of PLRX stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Pliant Therapeutics own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Pliant Therapeutics investors own include NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), Broadcom (AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Adobe (ADBE), ServiceNow (NOW) and CrowdStrike (CRWD).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 11/07/2024
• Today: 3/03/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 5/05/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
• Sector: Medical
• Industry: Pharmaceutical preparations
• Sub-Industry: Pharmaceutical Products
• Current Symbol: NASDAQ:PLRX
• CIK: 1746473
• Web: pliantrx.com
• Phone: 650-481-6770
• Fax: N/A
• Employees: 90
• Year Founded: N/A

Price Target and Rating

• Average Stock Price Target: $17.75
• High Stock Price Target: $45.00
• Low Stock Price Target: $4.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +947.2%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.45
• Research Coverage: 11 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Most Recent Fiscal Year): ($3.34)
• Trailing P/E Ratio: N/A
• Forward P/E Ratio: N/A
• P/E Growth: N/A
• Net Income: $-161,340,000.00
• Net Margins: N/A
• Pretax Margin: N/A
• Return on Equity: -48.91%
• Return on Assets: -41.09%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.09
• Current Ratio: 10.26
• Quick Ratio: 10.26

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.58 million
• Price / Sales: 65.28
• Cash Flow: N/A
• Price / Cash Flow: N/A
• Book Value: $7.91 per share
• Price / Book: 0.21

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 60,854,000
• Free Float: 56,959,000
• Market Cap: $103.15 million
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 1.03