Brokerages Set Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQST) Target Price at $8.50

Shares of Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AQST) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Buy” by the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $8.50.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aquestive Therapeutics in a report on Monday, April 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Aquestive Therapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on Aquestive Therapeutics in a report on Friday, April 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $8.00 price target on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aquestive Therapeutics news, CEO Daniel Barber sold 8,257 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.29, for a total value of $35,422.53. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 660,574 shares in the company, valued at $2,833,862.46. This trade represents a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Julie Krop sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.02, for a total value of $125,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $125,500. The trade was a 50.00% 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. Company insiders own 6.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Aquestive Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Aquestive Therapeutics by 30.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,662,132 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333,627 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Aquestive Therapeutics by 53.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,462,778 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,910,000 after purchasing an additional 860,562 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Aquestive Therapeutics by 99.2% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,405,050 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,981,000 after purchasing an additional 1,197,459 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Aquestive Therapeutics by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,368,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,301,000 after purchasing an additional 280,144 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Aquestive Therapeutics by 159.4% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,032,822 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,132,000 after purchasing an additional 1,249,044 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 32.45% of the company’s stock.

Aquestive Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AQST opened at $4.39 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $4.23 and its 200 day moving average is $4.37. Aquestive Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $2.93 and a fifty-two week high of $7.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $550.73 million, a PE ratio of -7.20 and a beta of 1.46.

Aquestive Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AQST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by $0.07. The company had revenue of $14.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.90 million. Equities analysts forecast that Aquestive Therapeutics will post -0.41 EPS for the current year.

About Aquestive Therapeutics

Aquestive Therapeutics, Inc is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel drug delivery systems. Leveraging its proprietary PharmFilm® technology, Aquestive designs thin-film formulations that facilitate sublingual, buccal and oral delivery of small molecules, offering rapid onset of action and improved patient compliance compared with traditional dosage forms.

The company’s lead product, Libervant® (diazepam) Buccal Film, is approved by the U.S.