Sage Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAGE) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Sage Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAGE) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,830,000 shares, a drop of 24.6% from the December 15th total of 6,410,000 shares. Approximately 9.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,030,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SAGE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Sage Therapeutics from $13.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Sage Therapeutics from $11.00 to $6.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Sage Therapeutics from $17.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Sage Therapeutics from $10.00 to $6.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Sage Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.53.

Institutional Trading of Sage Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Sage Therapeutics by 245.3% in the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,916 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 2,782 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Sage Therapeutics by 66.1% during the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 11,742 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 4,672 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning purchased a new stake in shares of Sage Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth about $88,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Sage Therapeutics by 57.7% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 22,498 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $122,000 after buying an additional 8,228 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Sage Therapeutics by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 11,763 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,486 shares in the last quarter. 99.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Sage Therapeutics Price Performance

SAGE traded up $0.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $7.08. 4,254,957 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,556,478. Sage Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $4.62 and a 52 week high of $27.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $433.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.27 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $5.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $7.52.

Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SAGE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.53) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.52) by ($0.01). Sage Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 50.29% and a negative net margin of 317.29%. The company had revenue of $11.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($2.81) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 337.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Sage Therapeutics will post -6.45 EPS for the current year.

Sage Therapeutics Company Profile

Sage Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes brain health medicines. Its product candidates include ZULRESSO, a CIV injection for the treatment of postpartum depression (PPD) in adults; and ZURZUVAE, a neuroactive steroid, a positive allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors, targeting both synaptic and extrasynaptic GABAA receptors, for the treatment of postpartum depression.