Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Wednesday morning.

Separately, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 price target on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday.

Akebia Therapeutics Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ AKBA opened at $1.94 on Wednesday. Akebia Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $0.80 and a 1-year high of $2.48. The company has a market cap of $423.27 million, a PE ratio of -8.43 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $1.56.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $37.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $45.66 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.08) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 40.7% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 31,221 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 9,037 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $44,000. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $59,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

About Akebia Therapeutics

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.