Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX)

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 4,072 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 69% compared to the typical volume of 2,416 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ARDX. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, March 7th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $15.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Ardelyx to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Raymond James lowered Ardelyx from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday. HC Wainwright reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $5.50 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Ardelyx from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.39.

Insider Transactions at Ardelyx

In other Ardelyx news, Director David M. Mott purchased 77,729 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $5.00 per share, for a total transaction of $388,645.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 2,015,494 shares in the company, valued at $10,077,470. This trade represents a 4.01 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 22,964 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.62, for a total value of $129,057.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,085,755 shares in the company, valued at $6,101,943.10. This trade represents a 2.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 116,410 shares of company stock worth $600,475 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 5.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ardelyx by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,362,659 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $72,819,000 after buying an additional 767,111 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ardelyx by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,509,730 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $27,941,000 after acquiring an additional 21,988 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Ardelyx by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,150,974 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $10,905,000 after acquiring an additional 50,441 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ardelyx by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,035,135 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $10,318,000 after acquiring an additional 96,357 shares during the period. 58.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ardelyx Stock Down 24.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARDX opened at $4.13 on Friday. Ardelyx has a 1 year low of $4.02 and a 1 year high of $9.33. The company has a market capitalization of $984.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -25.81 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 4.58 and a quick ratio of 4.31. The business has a 50-day moving average of $5.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.25.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.10) by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $74.11 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.40 million. Ardelyx had a negative net margin of 11.73% and a negative return on equity of 24.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 61.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.11) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ardelyx will post -0.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardelyx Company Profile

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.