Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ:KNSA) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ:KNSA) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,960,000 shares, an increase of 53.4% from the January 31st total of 1,930,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 463,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $34.00 price target on shares of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.60.

Insider Transactions at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals

In other news, COO Eben Tessari sold 14,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.57, for a total transaction of $273,980.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 81,975 shares in the company, valued at $1,604,250.75. This trade represents a 14.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 29,123 shares of company stock worth $553,204 in the last quarter. Insiders own 54.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Braidwell LP lifted its holdings in shares of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals by 40.6% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 2,894,513 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,334,000 after acquiring an additional 836,210 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals by 36,925.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 696,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,413,000 after purchasing an additional 694,928 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its stake in Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals by 1,064.4% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 345,092 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,624,000 after purchasing an additional 315,456 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals by 138.9% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 477,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,451,000 after purchasing an additional 277,827 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals by 50.9% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 779,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,422,000 after acquiring an additional 263,146 shares during the period. 53.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 0.6 %

Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $21.33 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.44. Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $16.56 and a 1-year high of $28.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -152.35 and a beta of 0.32.

Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:KNSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by ($0.06). Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 2.36% and a negative return on equity of 7.31%. The firm had revenue of $122.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $123.42 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 46.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals will post -0.55 EPS for the current year.

Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering, acquiring, developing, and commercializing therapeutic medicines for patients suffering from debilitating diseases with significant unmet medical needs worldwide. Its product candidates include ARCALYST, an interleukin-1alpha and interleukin-1beta, for the treatment of recurrent pericarditis, which is an inflammatory cardiovascular disease; Mavrilimumab, a monoclonal antibody inhibitor that completed Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of giant cell arteritis; Vixarelimab, a monoclonal antibody, that is in Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of prurigo nodularis, a chronic inflammatory skin condition; and KPL-404, a monoclonal antibody inhibitor of the CD40- CD154 interaction, a T-cell co-stimulatory signal critical for B-cell maturation, immunoglobulin class switching, and type 1 immune response.