Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) Trading Up 13% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) were up 13% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $4.04 and last traded at $3.82. Approximately 2,899,398 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 41% from the average daily volume of 4,886,484 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.38.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ARDX shares. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Ardelyx from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $5.50 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Ardelyx to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Raymond James lowered shares of Ardelyx from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $11.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.39.

Ardelyx Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 4.31, a current ratio of 4.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The company has a market cap of $928.31 million, a PE ratio of -24.25 and a beta of 0.76. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $4.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.09.

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

Insider Transactions at Ardelyx

In related news, Director David M. Mott purchased 381,377 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 2nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $4.22 per share, with a total value of $1,609,410.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,396,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,114,795.62. This represents a 18.92% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 22,964 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $129,057.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,085,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,101,943.10. The trade was a 2.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 158,076 shares of company stock valued at $777,555. 4.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ardelyx

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARDX. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Ardelyx by 24.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 547,325 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,770,000 after purchasing an additional 109,285 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Ardelyx by 1.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 387,144 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,667,000 after purchasing an additional 6,093 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Ardelyx by 41.8% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 54,886 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 16,182 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Ardelyx by 32.8% in the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 79,423 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 19,630 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Ardelyx by 101.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 13,706 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 6,915 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

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.