Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) Short Interest Update

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 36,310,000 shares, an increase of 8.0% from the February 29th total of 33,610,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 6,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ardelyx news, insider David P. Rosenbaum sold 5,183 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $47,683.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 175,936 shares in the company, valued at $1,618,611.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider David P. Rosenbaum sold 5,183 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $47,683.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 175,936 shares in the company, valued at $1,618,611.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 22,917 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.75, for a total value of $200,523.75. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,319,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,549,571.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 171,320 shares of company stock worth $1,354,774. Corporate insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ardelyx

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ARDX. Xponance Inc. lifted its position in Ardelyx by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 14,112 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 1,575 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 30,269 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $188,000 after acquiring an additional 1,608 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 27,450 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 2,416 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 13.7% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 24,401 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,939 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Ardelyx by 5.3% during the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 61,064 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 3,064 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Ardelyx Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of ARDX opened at $7.35 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 4.64 and a current ratio of 4.88. The firm has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -24.50 and a beta of 0.85. Ardelyx has a fifty-two week low of $3.16 and a fifty-two week high of $10.13. The business has a 50-day moving average of $8.64 and a 200 day moving average of $6.35.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $34.36 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.26 million. Ardelyx had a negative net margin of 53.08% and a negative return on equity of 43.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 22.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.06 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ardelyx will post -0.44 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on ARDX. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Ardelyx from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, January 12th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Ardelyx from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Ardelyx from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Ardelyx from $9.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.36.

Ardelyx Company Profile

Ardelyx, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines to treat gastrointestinal and cardiorenal therapeutic areas in the United States and internationally. The company's lead product candidate is tenapanor for the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.