Short Interest in Sage Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAGE) Declines By 24.6%

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

Institutional Trading of Sage Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sage Therapeutics by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,242,854 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,975,000 after acquiring an additional 3,757 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Sage Therapeutics by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,926,239 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $21,127,000 after purchasing an additional 451,377 shares in the last quarter. RTW Investments LP boosted its holdings in Sage Therapeutics by 2.0% in the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 5,591,700 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $40,372,000 after purchasing an additional 111,123 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in Sage Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Martingale Asset Management L P raised its holdings in Sage Therapeutics by 55.1% during the third quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 47,077 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 16,717 shares in the last quarter. 99.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sage Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of SAGE traded down $0.18 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $7.26. The company had a trading volume of 4,396,603 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,200,416. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $5.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.53. Sage Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $4.62 and a 1 year high of $27.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $444.12 million, a P/E ratio of -1.30 and a beta of 0.91.

Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SAGE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.53) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.52) by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $11.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.80 million. Sage Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 317.29% and a negative return on equity of 50.29%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 337.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($2.81) earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Sage Therapeutics will post -6.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SAGE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Sage Therapeutics from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Sage Therapeutics from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $4.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Sage Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, October 10th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $14.00 target price on shares of Sage Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Wedbush lowered their price target on Sage Therapeutics from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $10.53.

About Sage Therapeutics

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.