Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) Short Interest Up 25.0% in December

Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,650,000 shares, an increase of 25.0% from the December 15th total of 2,920,000 shares. Approximately 4.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,060,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on ATYR. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Monday, January 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Friday, October 4th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.25.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Atyr PHARMA

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Atyr PHARMA stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) by 52.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 31,440 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 10,754 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Atyr PHARMA were worth $55,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 61.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Atyr PHARMA Stock Performance

Shares of ATYR stock traded up $0.29 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $3.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,655,411 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,073,541. Atyr PHARMA has a 12-month low of $1.39 and a 12-month high of $4.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 5.41 and a quick ratio of 5.41. The firm has a market cap of $314.78 million, a P/E ratio of -3.99 and a beta of 1.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.38.

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by ($0.01). On average, analysts forecast that Atyr PHARMA will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

About Atyr PHARMA

aTyr Pharma, Inc engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.