Laura A. Williams Sells 4,941 Shares of Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) Stock

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) insider Laura A. Williams sold 4,941 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.62, for a total transaction of $27,768.42. Following the sale, the insider now owns 303,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,707,378.48. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Ardelyx Trading Down 11.6 %

ARDX opened at $5.06 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.59 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 4.03, a quick ratio of 3.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Ardelyx, Inc. has a 12 month low of $4.32 and a 12 month high of $9.83. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.63.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02. The company had revenue of $116.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.16 million. Ardelyx had a negative return on equity of 25.74% and a negative net margin of 11.73%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ardelyx

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 24,387,941 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $123,587,000 after acquiring an additional 2,858,061 shares in the last quarter. Two Seas Capital LP acquired a new position in Ardelyx during the fourth quarter worth $9,407,000. Rock Springs Capital Management LP bought a new position in Ardelyx in the fourth quarter valued at $7,421,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. increased its stake in Ardelyx by 9,499.8% in the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 1,468,668 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,446,000 after buying an additional 1,453,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Ardelyx in the 4th quarter valued at $6,762,000. Institutional investors own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $13.00 target price (down previously from $15.00) on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Ardelyx from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Ardelyx from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ardelyx from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Ardelyx to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $9.93.

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.