Akebia Therapeutics’ (AKBA) Buy Rating Reiterated at HC Wainwright

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by HC Wainwright in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $7.50 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price points to a potential upside of 222.58% from the company’s current price.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AKBA traded down $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $2.33. The stock had a trading volume of 1,083,107 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,696,773. Akebia Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $0.80 and a 52 week high of $2.48. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $1.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $1.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $507.27 million, a PE ratio of -10.11 and a beta of 0.72.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $37.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.08) EPS. Analysts forecast that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Akebia Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wealth Effects LLC increased its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Effects LLC now owns 32,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 40.7% during the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 31,221 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 9,037 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 98,546 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $130,000 after acquiring an additional 9,662 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 68,064 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 13,907 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 205.8% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 46,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 31,137 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

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.