Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Buys 120,496 Shares of aTyr Pharma, Inc. $ATYR

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR) by 46.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 382,317 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 120,496 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned approximately 0.43% of aTyr Pharma worth $1,155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Octagon Capital Advisors LP increased its position in shares of aTyr Pharma by 294.7% in the 1st quarter. Octagon Capital Advisors LP now owns 3,552,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,727,000 after buying an additional 2,652,000 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new stake in aTyr Pharma in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,812,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in aTyr Pharma in the 4th quarter valued at $330,000. Millennium Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,332,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of aTyr Pharma in the fourth quarter valued at about $720,000. 61.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

aTyr Pharma Trading Down 5.5%

ATYR opened at $0.99 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 5.63, a quick ratio of 5.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. aTyr Pharma, Inc. has a 12 month low of $0.95 and a 12 month high of $7.29. The firm has a market cap of $97.22 million, a P/E ratio of -1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $4.93 and a 200 day moving average of $4.31.

aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:ATYR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.04). As a group, research analysts forecast that aTyr Pharma, Inc. will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ATYR. Wall Street Zen cut shares of aTyr Pharma from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut aTyr Pharma from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Leerink Partnrs lowered shares of aTyr Pharma from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of aTyr Pharma in a report on Monday, September 15th. Finally, Jones Trading lowered shares of aTyr Pharma from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, aTyr Pharma presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.25.

About aTyr Pharma

aTyr Pharma, Inc engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.