Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Short Interest Up 21.7% in December

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) saw a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,070,000 shares, a growth of 21.7% from the November 30th total of 11,560,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,990,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.1 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AKBA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 price target on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 40.7% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 31,221 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 9,037 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $44,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $44,000. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $58,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Akebia Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $59,000. 33.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AKBA traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $1.90. 952,909 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,988,869. Akebia Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $0.80 and a twelve month high of $2.48. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $1.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1.49. The company has a market cap of $414.54 million, a P/E ratio of -8.26 and a beta of 0.70.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $37.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.66 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.08) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.