Insider Selling: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CFO Sells 41,314 Shares of Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CFO Erik Ostrowski sold 41,314 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.67, for a total transaction of $151,622.38. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 503,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,848,160.62. This represents a 7.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics stock opened at $3.63 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $3.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $953.38 million, a P/E ratio of -17.28 and a beta of 0.88. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $0.91 and a fifty-two week high of $4.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 2.02.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $57.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.88 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on AKBA. HC Wainwright assumed coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $6.00 price objective for the company. Leerink Partners started coverage on Akebia Therapeutics in a report on Monday, April 28th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded Akebia Therapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 3rd. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded Akebia Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $6.75.

Institutional Trading of Akebia Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 265,389 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 22,513 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 497,547 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $945,000 after acquiring an additional 27,839 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Akebia Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Akebia Therapeutics by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 586,710 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,115,000 after acquiring an additional 18,043 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at $85,000. 33.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.