Exagen Inc. (NASDAQ:XGN) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Exagen Inc. (NASDAQ:XGN) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,400 shares, a decline of 90.7% from the December 31st total of 79,200 shares. Approximately 0.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.1 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Exagen news, CEO John Aballi bought 24,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $2.81 per share, with a total value of $68,297.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 689,799 shares in the company, valued at $1,938,335.19. The trade was a 3.65 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Nmsic Co-Investment Fund, L.P. sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.30, for a total value of $660,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,108,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,959,561.40. This represents a 8.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 26.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Exagen

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of XGN. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Exagen by 93.3% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 94,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,000 after acquiring an additional 45,476 shares during the period. Creative Planning acquired a new stake in Exagen during the 3rd quarter worth $110,000. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Exagen by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 76,364 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,000 after acquiring an additional 9,695 shares in the last quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Exagen in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Stonepine Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Exagen by 49.0% during the third quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC now owns 534,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,651,000 after acquiring an additional 175,701 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $8.00 price target on shares of Exagen in a research report on Monday, January 13th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exagen in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on Exagen from $5.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd.

Exagen Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of Exagen stock traded up $0.01 during trading on Thursday, hitting $4.08. 28,171 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 200,872. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $4.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 4.05 and a current ratio of 4.05. Exagen has a twelve month low of $1.30 and a twelve month high of $6.22. The stock has a market cap of $71.90 million, a P/E ratio of -4.35 and a beta of 1.42.

Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.28) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.02. Exagen had a negative net margin of 30.36% and a negative return on equity of 92.58%. The business had revenue of $12.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.55 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.31) earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Exagen will post -0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exagen Company Profile

Exagen Inc develops and commercializes various testing products under the AVISE brand in the United States. The company enables healthcare providers to care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).