Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Short Interest Down 6.5% in June

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,300,000 shares, a decline of 6.5% from the May 31st total of 13,160,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,550,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics stock traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $0.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,295,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,969,574. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $1.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.39. Akebia Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $0.78 and a 12-month high of $2.48. The company has a market cap of $201.22 million, a PE ratio of -4.17 and a beta of 0.78.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.09). The business had revenue of $32.61 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.13 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.14) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Akebia Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AKBA. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $1,447,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 8.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,225,972 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $15,054,000 after buying an additional 618,500 shares in the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $248,000. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 311,608.2% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 152,737 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $174,000 after buying an additional 152,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $79,000. 33.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AKBA has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Akebia Therapeutics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. HC Wainwright lifted their target price on Akebia Therapeutics from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th.

Akebia Therapeutics Company Profile

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company's lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients.