Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 17,680,000 shares, a decrease of 6.0% from the September 30th total of 18,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,670,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 10.6 days.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Performance

AKBA stock opened at $1.70 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $356.31 million, a P/E ratio of -7.39 and a beta of 0.77. Akebia Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $0.80 and a 52 week high of $2.48. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.28.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $43.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.61 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.06) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Akebia Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 8.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,225,972 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $15,054,000 after purchasing an additional 618,500 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at about $79,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 3,122.2% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 604,551 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $617,000 after buying an additional 585,789 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,914,800 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,993,000 after acquiring an additional 262,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 40.7% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 31,221 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 9,037 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $7.50 target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

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.