Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Short Interest Update

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,300,000 shares, a decrease of 6.5% from the May 31st total of 13,160,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $79,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 8.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,225,972 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $15,054,000 after acquiring an additional 618,500 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,447,000. Compass Ion Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, Cannon Global Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $51,000. 33.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Akebia Therapeutics Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of AKBA stock opened at $0.96 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $1.39. The company has a market cap of $201.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.17 and a beta of 0.78. Akebia Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $0.78 and a 12-month high of $2.48.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.09). The business had revenue of $32.61 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.14) EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on AKBA shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. HC Wainwright upped their target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th.

About Akebia Therapeutics

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company's lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients.