Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,920,000 shares, a growth of 31.6% from the February 28th total of 5,260,000 shares. Currently, 8.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,260,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Atyr PHARMA

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in Atyr PHARMA during the fourth quarter worth about $53,093,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the fourth quarter worth $17,677,000. Tikvah Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the fourth quarter worth about $8,908,000. Woodline Partners LP bought a new stake in Atyr PHARMA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,092,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the fourth quarter worth $4,628,000. Institutional investors own 61.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ATYR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a report on Friday, March 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Atyr PHARMA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Leerink Partners initiated coverage on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Atyr PHARMA currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $18.60.

Atyr PHARMA Stock Down 4.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ATYR opened at $2.88 on Wednesday. Atyr PHARMA has a 52 week low of $1.42 and a 52 week high of $4.66. The company has a market capitalization of $255.91 million, a PE ratio of -3.06 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s fifty day moving average is $3.62 and its 200-day moving average is $3.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 5.41 and a current ratio of 5.41.

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by $0.05. Equities research analysts predict that Atyr PHARMA will post -0.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.