Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) Hits New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $3.86 and last traded at $3.89, with a volume of 2309235 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $4.03.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ARDX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Ardelyx from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Ardelyx from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH started coverage on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Zacks Research cut shares of Ardelyx from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, BTIG Research cut their target price on shares of Ardelyx from $17.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.90.

Ardelyx Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $969.35 million, a P/E ratio of -17.68 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 3.15 and a current ratio of 3.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $5.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.81.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $120.88 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $121.03 million. Ardelyx had a negative net margin of 12.35% and a negative return on equity of 36.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.08) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Ardelyx

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ardelyx in the 2nd quarter worth about $119,874,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in Ardelyx during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,043,000. AIGH Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Ardelyx during the second quarter worth about $16,320,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Ardelyx by 88.8% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,527,988 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $21,670,000 after acquiring an additional 2,600,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in Ardelyx by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,912,339 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $69,449,000 after acquiring an additional 2,193,649 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

About Ardelyx

Ardelyx, Inc (NASDAQ: ARDX) is a clinical?stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing targeted small molecule drugs for cardio?renal and gastrointestinal diseases. The company’s lead marketed product, tenapanor (sold under the brand name XPHOZAH in the United States), is approved for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis. Ardelyx’s proprietary approach targets epithelial transporters in the gastrointestinal tract, offering localized activity with limited systemic exposure.

Beyond tenapanor, Ardelyx’s development pipeline includes treatments designed to address other complications in kidney disease and related metabolic disorders.