Hookipa Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HOOK) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Hookipa Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:HOOK) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 24,200 shares, a decrease of 9.7% from the August 15th total of 26,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 39,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.6 days. Currently, 0.3% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on HOOK shares. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on Hookipa Pharma from $50.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Hookipa Pharma in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, JMP Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Hookipa Pharma from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hookipa Pharma

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HOOK. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Hookipa Pharma by 85.8% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 882,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $627,000 after buying an additional 407,532 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Hookipa Pharma in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hookipa Pharma by 38.4% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 302,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,000 after purchasing an additional 83,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.88% of the company’s stock.

Hookipa Pharma Stock Performance

NASDAQ HOOK traded down $0.16 on Wednesday, reaching $4.62. 51,136 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 60,927. Hookipa Pharma has a 12 month low of $4.10 and a 12 month high of $11.30. The company has a market cap of $45.71 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.94 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $5.39 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.84.

Hookipa Pharma (NASDAQ:HOOK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($1.52) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.44) by ($0.08). Hookipa Pharma had a negative net margin of 93.16% and a negative return on equity of 36.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.29 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.68 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Hookipa Pharma will post -2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hookipa Pharma Company Profile

HOOKIPA Pharma Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops immunotherapeutics targeting infectious diseases and cancers based on its proprietary arenavirus platform. The company's lead infectious disease product candidate is HB-101, which is in a randomized double-blinded Phase 2 clinical trial in cytomegalovirus-negative patients awaiting kidney transplantation from cytomegalovirus-positive donors.