Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) Stock Price Passes Below 200 Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA)’s stock price crossed below its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $1.22 and traded as low as $0.90. Akebia Therapeutics shares last traded at $0.9584, with a volume of 11,341,036 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Research raised Akebia Therapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Leerink Partners downgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $1.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.75.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $1.15 and its 200-day moving average is $1.22. The firm has a market cap of $260.43 million, a P/E ratio of -8.54 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $49.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $48.85 million. Akebia Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 88.88% and a negative net margin of 13.54%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Akebia Therapeutics news, CFO Erik Ostrowski sold 56,019 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.11, for a total transaction of $62,181.09. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 616,616 shares in the company, valued at $684,443.76. This represents a 8.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 4.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Akebia Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Akebia Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at about $22,784,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 6.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,547,508 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $42,445,000 after acquiring an additional 936,042 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,687,561 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $22,037,000 after acquiring an additional 1,842,792 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,277,177 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $10,108,000 after buying an additional 92,226 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 166.2% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,706,437 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,577,000 after purchasing an additional 2,938,624 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

Akebia Therapeutics Company Profile

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is focused on the development and commercialization of therapies for patients with kidney disease. The company’s lead product candidate, vadadustat, is an investigational oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor designed to treat anemia associated with chronic kidney disease in both dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis patients. Akebia’s research and development efforts also extend to preclinical programs targeting nephrology and related metabolic disorders.

Since its founding in 2007, Akebia has pursued strategic collaborations to advance its clinical pipeline and expand its market reach.