Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APRE) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Aprea Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:APRE) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 616,887 shares, a growth of 11,142.7% from the August 15th total of 5,487 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 893,115 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.7 days. Currently, 5.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Aprea Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ APRE traded down $0.00 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $0.79. 61,302 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 967,729. Aprea Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $0.55 and a 52-week high of $1.69. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $0.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $0.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.94 million, a PE ratio of -0.73 and a beta of 1.54.

Aprea Therapeutics (NASDAQ:APRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.11. Aprea Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 47.60% and a negative net margin of 4,405.59%. Analysts predict that Aprea Therapeutics will post -0.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on APRE. Wedbush cut their price objective on Aprea Therapeutics to $3.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Aprea Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $3.07.

Institutional Trading of Aprea Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. DRW Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aprea Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $103,000. Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new stake in Aprea Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, AIGH Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Aprea Therapeutics by 174.1% during the first quarter. AIGH Capital Management LLC now owns 1,015,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $775,000 after purchasing an additional 645,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 34.19% of the company’s stock.

About Aprea Therapeutics

Aprea Therapeutics is a clinical?stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing targeted therapies that restore tumor suppressor function in cancers driven by TP53 mutations. The company’s lead investigational agent, eprenetapopt (APR-246), is designed to convert mutant p53 protein into a form that induces programmed cell death in malignant cells. Aprea’s research focuses on hematologic malignancies, including myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as well as solid tumors harboring TP53 mutations.

Eprenetapopt has advanced through multiple clinical trials, including pivotal studies assessing its efficacy in combination with hypomethylating agents for patients with MDS.