Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Insider Sells $116,804.10 in Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) insider Nicholas Grund sold 55,621 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total value of $116,804.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 442,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $929,415.90. The trade was a 11.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AKBA opened at $2.14 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $466.91 million, a PE ratio of -9.30 and a beta of 0.74. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.67. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $0.80 and a fifty-two week high of $2.48.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $37.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.66 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.08) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Akebia Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AKBA. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 24.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,430,527 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,528,000 after buying an additional 683,287 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $534,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 4.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,754,464 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,277,000 after buying an additional 218,172 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 276.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 273,085 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 200,482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth approximately $221,000. 33.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on AKBA shares. StockNews.com lowered Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 price target on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd.

About Akebia Therapeutics

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.