E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Sells 8,739 Shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. lessened its position in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) by 34.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,746 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 8,739 shares during the period. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals were worth $74,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,730,771 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $51,967,000 after purchasing an additional 450,949 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,919,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,870,000 after buying an additional 677,024 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,983,240 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $8,786,000 after acquiring an additional 78,969 shares in the last quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 1,982.8% in the third quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC now owns 1,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,120,000 after acquiring an additional 951,988 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 978,135 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,333,000 after acquiring an additional 65,357 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on IRWD shares. JMP Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Craig Hallum decreased their price target on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $8.60.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $1.50 on Monday. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1 year low of $1.43 and a 1 year high of $9.30. The company has a 50-day moving average of $2.85 and a 200 day moving average of $3.72. The firm has a market cap of $240.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -50.00 and a beta of 0.37.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.08). Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 0.96% and a negative net margin of 0.65%. The company had revenue of $90.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.85 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 0.1 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Thomas A. Mccourt sold 139,064 shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total value of $244,752.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,160,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,042,715.84. The trade was a 10.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CMO Michael Shetzline sold 41,269 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total value of $72,633.44. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 554,007 shares in the company, valued at $975,052.32. The trade was a 6.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 192,381 shares of company stock worth $338,591 in the last three months. Insiders own 12.90% of the company’s stock.

About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a healthcare company, focuses on the development and commercialization of gastrointestinal (GI) products. It markets linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase type-C (GC-C) agonist for the treatment of adults suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation under the LINZESS name in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and China, as well as under the CONSTELLA name in the Canada and European countries.