ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,720,000 shares, a growth of 14.5% from the December 15th total of 9,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider James Kihara sold 4,073 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total value of $68,467.13. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $333,897.03. This represents a 17.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Mark C. Schneyer sold 10,259 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total value of $172,453.79. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 53,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $896,006.62. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,661 shares of company stock valued at $414,551 over the last three months. 28.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Park Place Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Values First Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 42.3% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,520 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 1,047 shares during the last quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at about $81,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 5,999 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 1,066 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ACAD. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 target price on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Guggenheim lowered ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.25.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 0.1 %

ACAD stock opened at $17.52 on Friday. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $14.15 and a 52 week high of $29.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.46 and a beta of 0.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $17.23 and a 200 day moving average of $16.52.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.06. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 13.83% and a return on equity of 25.83%. The business had revenue of $250.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $248.83 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.40) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

About ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome.