Akebia Therapeutics Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:AKBA)

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 2,396 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 92% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,249 call options.

Institutional Trading of Akebia Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 276.1% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 273,085 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 200,482 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 502,127 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $954,000 after acquiring an additional 97,409 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,795,095 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $9,112,000 after acquiring an additional 40,631 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,884,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $20,680,000 after acquiring an additional 813,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Akebia Therapeutics by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 265,389 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 22,513 shares in the last quarter. 33.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on AKBA shares. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, April 28th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 price target for the company. Leerink Partnrs raised Akebia Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. StockNews.com raised Akebia Therapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Akebia Therapeutics from $4.00 to $6.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 price target on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a report on Friday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $6.63.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Up 6.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ AKBA opened at $2.63 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $687.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.41 and a beta of 0.88. Akebia Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $0.80 and a 52 week high of $2.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.98.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $57.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $44.88 million. Equities research analysts expect that Akebia Therapeutics will post -0.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.