Needham & Company LLC Issues Positive Forecast for ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) Stock Price

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) had its target price upped by Needham & Company LLC from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on ACAD. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com cut ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. They set a “hold” rating and a $22.00 price objective for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.42.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ACAD opened at $21.99 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.19 and a beta of 0.47. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $13.40 and a 1 year high of $25.23. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $16.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.16.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.01. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 25.83% and a net margin of 13.83%. The firm had revenue of $244.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $239.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

In other news, Director Elizabeth A. Garofalo sold 4,919 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.23, for a total value of $89,673.37. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $320,756.85. This represents a 21.85% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark C. Schneyer sold 3,498 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.60, for a total value of $51,070.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,773 shares in the company, valued at $916,485.80. This represents a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,994 shares of company stock valued at $453,131 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ACAD. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 126.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 277,565 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $4,269,000 after purchasing an additional 154,854 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 380.3% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,483,731 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $45,576,000 after buying an additional 1,966,607 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 67.0% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,093 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $93,000 after buying an additional 2,044 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 35,281 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $647,000 after purchasing an additional 3,378 shares in the last quarter. 96.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome.