Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AUPH) stock jumped 3.06% on Friday to $8.42 against a previous-day closing price of $8.17. With 1.61 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 2.81 million shares. During the session, the Biotechnology company that operates in wider Healthcare sector, reached to the highest price of $8.45 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $8.24. The 52-week range on AUPH shows that it touched its highest point at $33.97 and its lowest point at $7.70 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $21.31. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.94.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of AUPH was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 0.60%, but this was down by -27.29% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -14.86% while six-month performance fell -54.85%. The stock lost -44.82% in the past year, while it has lost -63.18% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for AUPH yields -1.16 with Next year EPS estimates of -0.36. For the next quarter, that number is -0.20. This implies an EPS growth rate of -61.40% for this year and 80.30% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 141.73 million AUPH shares are outstanding with a float of 132.81 million shares on hand for trading. On Jul 14, 2022, short shares totaled 13.84 million, which was 9.76% higher than short shares on Jun 14, 2022. In addition to Mr. Peter S. Greenleaf M.B.A. as the firm’s Pres, CEO & Director, Mr. Joseph M. Miller CPA serves as its Chief Financial Officer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 31.17% of AUPH’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 23.04% of AUPH, in contrast to 11.80% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 0.36%. As the largest shareholder in AUPH with 4.68% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 6,628,027 shares worth 6,628,027. A second-largest stockholder of AUPH, Fidelity Management & Research Co, holds 5,241,165 shares, controlling over 3.70% of the firm’s shares. Bellevue Asset Management AG is the third largest shareholder in AUPH, holding 2,671,413 shares or 1.89% stake. With a 2.10% stake in AUPH, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 2,968,893 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Fidelity Advisor Series I -Growth, which owns about 1.29% of AUPH stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,825,600 shares valued at 14.93 million. iShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF holds 0.74% of the stake in AUPH, owning 1,052,308 shares worth 8.61 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for AUPH since 8 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 7 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 0 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 1 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With AUPH analysts setting a high price target of $30.00 and a low target of $13.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $21.31. Based on these targets, AUPH could surge 256.29% to reach the target high and rise by 54.39% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 153.09% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. AUPH will report FY 2022 earnings on 03/09/2023. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of -$0.68 being high and -$1.00 being low. For AUPH, this leads to a yearly average estimate of -$0.83. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. surprised analysts by -$0.03 when it reported -$0.25 EPS against a consensus estimate of -$0.22. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was -$0.00. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is -$0.21 and the low estimate is -$0.25. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus -$0.23.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded AUPH stock several times over the past three months with 2 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 20,000 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 96 while that of sell transactions has risen to 98 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,955,492 while 3,602,929 shares were sold.
