Does Ligand (LGND) Have the Potential to Rally 32.33% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?

Group 1: Stock Performance and Price Targets - Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND) closed at $87.91, with a 20.7% gain over the past four weeks, and a mean price target of $116.33 indicating a 32.3% upside potential [1] - The mean estimate includes three short-term price targets with a standard deviation of $25.11, where the lowest estimate of $95 suggests an 8.1% increase, and the highest estimate of $144 indicates a potential surge of 63.8% [2] - A tight clustering of price targets, represented by a low standard deviation, suggests a high degree of agreement among analysts regarding the stock's price movement [7] Group 2: Earnings Estimates and Analyst Consensus - Analysts show growing optimism about LGND's earnings prospects, as indicated by strong agreement in revising EPS estimates higher, which correlates with near-term stock price movements [9] - The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has increased by 3.8% due to one estimate moving higher over the last 30 days without any negative revisions [10] - LGND holds a Zacks Rank 1 (Strong Buy), placing it in the top 5% of over 4,000 ranked stocks based on earnings estimates, indicating a strong potential upside [11]