Prudential Financial Inc. Buys 1,214,992 Shares of Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN)

Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN) by 40.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,224,997 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,214,992 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Elanco Animal Health were worth $51,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Elanco Animal Health in the 3rd quarter worth $35,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in Elanco Animal Health by 95.6% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 4,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 2,059 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 221.2% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411 shares during the period. MRP Capital Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health during the 4th quarter valued at about $61,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 47.7% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,894 shares during the period. 97.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on ELAN. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Elanco Animal Health from $16.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Elanco Animal Health to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Elanco Animal Health from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.17.

Elanco Animal Health Stock Performance

NYSE ELAN opened at $10.51 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 2.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated has a twelve month low of $10.03 and a twelve month high of $18.80. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $11.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.51. The firm has a market cap of $5.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.44.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Elanco Animal Health

In related news, Director Lawrence Erik Kurzius acquired 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $10.20 per share, for a total transaction of $102,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 111,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,136,881.80. This trade represents a 9.86 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Elanco Animal Health 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.