Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) Trading Down 1.4% – Time to Sell?

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR)’s share price fell 1.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $3.52 and last traded at $3.55. 251,688 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 32% from the average session volume of 367,719 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.60.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AVIR shares. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Atea Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.00.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 1.4%

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $3.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.30. The company has a market capitalization of $277.36 million, a P/E ratio of -2.01 and a beta of 0.16.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.53) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by ($0.07). As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Atea Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth about $36,000. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth about $55,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 57.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 19,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 7,286 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth $59,000. Finally, Certified Advisory Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter valued at about $71,000. Institutional investors own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of oral antiviral therapeutics targeting RNA viruses. The company’s lead program, AT-527, is a direct-acting nucleotide prodrug licensed from Roche and is being evaluated as a potential treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In addition to its COVID-19 efforts, Atea’s pipeline includes other small-molecule candidates for hepatitis C virus and emerging RNA pathogens, leveraging its proprietary nucleotide chemistry platform to address significant unmet medical needs in infectious diseases.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Atea operates research laboratories in the Greater Boston area and conducts clinical studies across North America, Europe and parts of Asia.