Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Shares Bought by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) by 363.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 456,294 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 357,748 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.21% of Akebia Therapeutics worth $867,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Akebia Therapeutics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,884,200 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $20,680,000 after acquiring an additional 813,902 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 24.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,430,527 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,528,000 after acquiring an additional 683,287 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 4.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,754,464 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,277,000 after buying an additional 218,172 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 276.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 273,085 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 200,482 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $221,000. 33.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AKBA. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics from $4.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Leerink Partners started coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a report on Monday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $7.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $7.50 target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $6.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6.63.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AKBA opened at $2.43 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $574.04 million, a P/E ratio of -10.56 and a beta of 0.87. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $0.80 and a 12-month high of $2.89. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.93.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $46.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.36 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO John P. Butler sold 144,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total value of $302,925.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,604,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,469,093. This represents a 5.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Nicholas Grund sold 55,621 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total transaction of $116,804.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 442,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $929,415.90. This represents a 11.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 280,579 shares of company stock valued at $589,216 in the last ninety days. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Akebia Therapeutics Profile

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company’s lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients.