Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AKBA. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Leerink Partners lowered shares of Akebia Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $1.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, August 7th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Westpark Capital assumed coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, September 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $4.50 price target for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.90.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of AKBA opened at $0.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 1.43. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $1.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1.19. Akebia Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $0.81 and a fifty-two week high of $3.20. The stock has a market cap of $263.73 million, a PE ratio of -8.65 and a beta of 0.19.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by $0.02. Akebia Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 88.88% and a negative net margin of 13.54%.The company had revenue of $49.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $48.85 million. Analysts anticipate that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Akebia Therapeutics news, CFO Erik Ostrowski sold 56,019 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.11, for a total transaction of $62,181.09. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 616,616 shares in the company, valued at approximately $684,443.76. This represents a 8.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 23.0% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 21,393 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Akebia Therapeutics by 13.1% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 176,961 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 20,499 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 137,897 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 11,517 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 171.8% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,724,439 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $5,231,000 after buying an additional 1,722,245 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 123.0% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,652,746 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,016,000 after buying an additional 911,585 shares during the period. 33.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Akebia Therapeutics Company Profile

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for patients with kidney disease. The company’s lead product candidate, vadadustat, is an investigational oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor designed to treat anemia associated with chronic kidney disease in both dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis patients. Akebia’s research and development efforts also extend to preclinical programs targeting nephrology and related metabolic disorders.

Since its founding in 2007, Akebia has pursued strategic collaborations to advance its clinical pipeline and expand its market reach.