Akebia Therapeutics Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:AKBA)

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors bought 3,386 call options on the company. This is an increase of 303% compared to the average volume of 841 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Akebia Therapeutics news, CAO Richard C. Malabre sold 30,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total transaction of $63,424.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 280,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $588,520.80. This trade represents a 9.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Steven Keith Burke sold 50,506 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total value of $106,062.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 816,234 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,714,091.40. This represents a 5.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 280,579 shares of company stock valued at $589,216. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AKBA. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter worth about $65,000. Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter worth about $59,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter worth about $104,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Akebia Therapeutics by 26.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 682,038 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $900,000 after acquiring an additional 140,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Akebia Therapeutics by 205.8% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 46,270 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 31,137 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on AKBA. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Akebia Therapeutics from $4.00 to $6.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 price objective on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Friday.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Up 33.7 %

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics stock opened at $2.26 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $493.09 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.83 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $2.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $1.78. Akebia Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $0.80 and a twelve month high of $2.48.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $46.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $37.36 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Akebia Therapeutics Company Profile

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.