Insider Selling: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CEO Sells 144,250 Shares of Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CEO John P. Butler sold 144,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total transaction of $302,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,604,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,469,093. The trade was a 5.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ AKBA traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $2.14. The stock had a trading volume of 1,343,441 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,507,634. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $2.00 and its 200 day moving average is $1.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $466.91 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.30 and a beta of 0.74. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $0.80 and a twelve month high of $2.48.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $37.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.66 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.08) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Akebia Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AKBA. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 24.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,430,527 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,528,000 after purchasing an additional 683,287 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth approximately $534,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 4.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,754,464 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,277,000 after buying an additional 218,172 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 276.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 273,085 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 200,482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth $221,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on AKBA shares. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $7.50 target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th.

Akebia Therapeutics Company Profile

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.