ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) Short Interest Update

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,200,000 shares, a growth of 5.4% from the March 15th total of 10,630,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 1.1 %

ACAD stock opened at $17.08 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a P/E ratio of -44.95 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.84. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $16.60 and a fifty-two week high of $33.99.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.32 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $231.04 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $223.79 million. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 15.67% and a negative net margin of 8.44%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 69.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.26) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Stephen Davis sold 26,574 shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.87, for a total transaction of $474,877.38. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 144,267 shares in the company, valued at $2,578,051.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Stephen Davis sold 26,574 shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.87, for a total transaction of $474,877.38. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 144,267 shares in the company, valued at $2,578,051.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Mark C. Schneyer sold 5,434 shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.90, for a total transaction of $97,268.60. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 26,183 shares in the company, valued at approximately $468,675.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 69,383 shares of company stock worth $1,291,362 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 27.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Empire Life Investments Inc. raised its position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Empire Life Investments Inc. now owns 174,815 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,473,000 after acquiring an additional 467 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 0.5% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 115,494 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,407,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank raised its position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 19,880 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $316,000 after acquiring an additional 622 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 31,633 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $990,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 50,405 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,578,000 after buying an additional 803 shares during the period. 96.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on ACAD shares. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird started coverage on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. Mizuho lowered shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 12th. TheStreet upgraded shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “d” rating to a “c” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $40.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.82.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome.