Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) Earns Neutral Rating from HC Wainwright

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at HC Wainwright in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $5.50 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 8.80% from the company’s current price. HC Wainwright also issued estimates for Ardelyx’s FY2029 earnings at $1.18 EPS.

Several other research firms have also commented on ARDX. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Ardelyx from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Ardelyx from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Ardelyx from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Ardelyx to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.93.

Ardelyx Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ARDX opened at $5.06 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $5.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.63. The firm has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -31.59 and a beta of 0.85. Ardelyx has a 52 week low of $4.32 and a 52 week high of $9.83. The company has a quick ratio of 3.87, a current ratio of 4.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.02. Ardelyx had a negative return on equity of 25.74% and a negative net margin of 11.73%. The business had revenue of $116.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.16 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ardelyx will post -0.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Ardelyx

In other Ardelyx news, Director David M. Mott bought 213,300 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $4.67 per share, with a total value of $996,111.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 1,638,765 shares in the company, valued at $7,653,032.55. This represents a 14.96 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Laura A. Williams sold 4,941 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.62, for a total value of $27,768.42. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 303,804 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,707,378.48. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 166,408 shares of company stock valued at $896,463 in the last three months. 5.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARDX. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Ardelyx by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 24,387,941 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $123,587,000 after purchasing an additional 2,858,061 shares during the last quarter. Two Seas Capital LP acquired a new position in Ardelyx in the 4th quarter valued at $9,407,000. Rock Springs Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Ardelyx in the 4th quarter valued at $7,421,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its stake in Ardelyx by 9,499.8% in the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 1,468,668 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,446,000 after purchasing an additional 1,453,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Ardelyx in the 4th quarter valued at $6,762,000. 58.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ardelyx

Ardelyx, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines to treat gastrointestinal and cardiorenal therapeutic areas in the United States and internationally. The company’s lead product candidate is tenapanor for the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.