10 Top Insider Stock Buys And Sells In January

2. Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:APLS)

Number of insiders selling: 11

Market Cap: $3.514 billion

Second among the 10 top stocks with heavy insider trading activity in January, is a biopharmaceutical company, Apellis Pharmaceuticals. The company is engaged in the development of new therapies for various serious illnesses by controlling a part of the immune system known as the complement cascade. Apellis Pharmaceuticals two treatments targeting C3, the central protein in the cascade, have been approved, and one of them is Syfovre – the first-ever therapy for geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness around the world.

In January, 11 insiders, including CEO, CFO, and CTO, sold around $2.76 million worth of Apellis Pharmaceuticals shares at an average price of around $29.76 per share. The stock is now trading at $28.10, having lost 11.96% year-to-date.

Over the past 12 months, the stock dropped 58.59%, and some analysts believe this happened due to the lack of approval of Syvovre in Europe.

For the third quarter of 2024, Apellis Pharmaceutical disclosed $152 million in Syfovre US net product revenue. Total revenue for the quarter was $196.8 million, compared to total revenue of $110.4 million, including $75.3 million in Syfovre US net product revenue for the third quarter of 2023.

According to data from Stock Analysis, 18 analysts have an average “Buy” rating on Apellis Pharmaceuticals stock, with a 12-month price target of $46.71, representing an increase of 66.08% from the last price.

On January 27, the company announced that Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved Syfovre for the every-other-month treatment of adult patients with geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration with an intact fovea and when central vision is threatened by geographic atrophy lesion growth. Syfovre is the first and only approved treatment for geographic atrophy in Australia.