ACADIA Pharmaceuticals’ (ACAD) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $41.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 76.95% from the stock’s current price.

ACAD has been the subject of several other research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, ACADIA Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.36.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ACAD traded down $2.26 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $23.17. The company had a trading volume of 2,141,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,662,146. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $19.69 and a fifty-two week high of $30.96. The firm has a market cap of $3.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.44 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $27.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.21.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $308.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $296.55 million. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 9.03% and a net margin of 33.42%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.16 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth Thompson sold 16,558 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.13, for a total transaction of $432,660.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 18,994 shares in the company, valued at $496,313.22. This represents a 46.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark Schneyer sold 14,292 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.22, for a total value of $417,612.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 67,828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,981,934.16. The trade was a 17.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 36,699 shares of company stock worth $1,019,894 over the last three months. Insiders own 26.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $569,634,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,239,451 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $86,539,000 after buying an additional 106,807 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 47.3% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,343,868 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $74,435,000 after buying an additional 1,073,834 shares in the last quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP bought a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at $72,461,629. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 8.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,155,160 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $70,222,000 after buying an additional 234,186 shares during the last quarter. 96.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing medicines for neurological and psychiatric disorders. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, and conducts research and commercial activities primarily in the United States.

ACADIA’s marketed products include NUPLAZID (pimavanserin), an atypical antipsychotic approved for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease psychosis. The company also markets DAYBUE (trofinetide), a therapy for Rett syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder.

Founded in 1993, ACADIA continues to advance a pipeline of therapies for central nervous system conditions, including additional neurological and psychiatric disorders.