Hookipa Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HOOK) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Hookipa Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HOOK) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 24,200 shares, a decline of 9.7% from the August 15th total of 26,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 39,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.6 days. Approximately 0.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of Hookipa Pharma from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. JMP Securities raised their price objective on Hookipa Pharma from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on shares of Hookipa Pharma in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st.

Hookipa Pharma Stock Performance

HOOK stock traded down $0.16 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $4.62. The company had a trading volume of 51,136 shares, compared to its average volume of 60,927. The company has a market cap of $45.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.94 and a beta of 0.84. Hookipa Pharma has a twelve month low of $4.10 and a twelve month high of $11.30. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $6.84.

Hookipa Pharma (NASDAQ:HOOK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($1.52) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.44) by ($0.08). Hookipa Pharma had a negative return on equity of 36.81% and a negative net margin of 93.16%. The company had revenue of $1.29 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.68 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Hookipa Pharma will post -2.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Hookipa Pharma

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Hookipa Pharma by 12.3% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 991,106 shares of the company’s stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 108,844 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Hookipa Pharma by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 302,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 83,800 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Hookipa Pharma in the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.88% of the company’s stock.

About Hookipa Pharma

HOOKIPA Pharma Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops immunotherapeutics targeting infectious diseases and cancers based on its proprietary arenavirus platform. The company's lead infectious disease product candidate is HB-101, which is in a randomized double-blinded Phase 2 clinical trial in cytomegalovirus-negative patients awaiting kidney transplantation from cytomegalovirus-positive donors.