Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.05), Zacks reports.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AKBA opened at $1.80 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $391.85 million, a PE ratio of -7.80 and a beta of 0.94. Akebia Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $0.80 and a 1-year high of $2.48. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $2.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1.78.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on AKBA. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Steven Keith Burke sold 50,506 shares of Akebia Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total transaction of $106,062.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 816,234 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,714,091.40. The trade was a 5.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO John P. Butler sold 144,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total value of $302,925.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,604,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,469,093. This trade represents a 5.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 280,579 shares of company stock valued at $589,216. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.