Akebia Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AKBA) stock jumped 2.88% on Wednesday to $1.43 against a previous-day closing price of $1.39. With 1.07 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.63 million shares. During the session, the Biotechnology company that operates in wider Healthcare sector, reached to the highest price of $1.4500 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $1.3700. The 52-week range on AKBA shows that it touched its highest point at $1.63 and its lowest point at $0.24 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $2.00. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.70.
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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 AKBA was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 26.55%, but this was up by 100.17% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 93.24% while six-month performance rose 460.78%. The stock gained 342.59% in the past year, while it has gained 147.83% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for AKBA yields -0.31 with Next year EPS estimates of -0.16. For the next quarter, that number is -0.08. This implies an EPS growth rate of 70.30% for this year and 51.50% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 184.77 million AKBA shares are outstanding with a float of 181.19 million shares on hand for trading. On Apr 27, 2023, short shares totaled 4.5 million, which was 2.42% higher than short shares on Mar 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. John P. Butler MBA as the firm’s CEO, Pres & Director, Mr. David A. Spellman serves as its Principal Accounting Officer, Sr. VP, CFO & Treasurer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 29.15% of AKBA’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 9.77% of AKBA, in contrast to 7.73% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 10.20%. As the largest shareholder in AKBA with 6.76% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 12,450,907 shares worth 12,450,907. A second-largest stockholder of AKBA, Acadian Asset Management LLC, holds 7,483,053 shares, controlling over 4.06% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in AKBA, holding 2,651,152 shares or 1.44% stake. With a 2.55% stake in AKBA, the Vanguard Explorer Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 4,698,164 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 2.21% of AKBA stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 4,069,247 shares valued at 3.7 million. Vanguard Extended Market Index Fu holds 1.31% of the stake in AKBA, owning 2,412,371 shares worth 2.19 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, AKBA reported revenue of $126.76M and operating income of $48.43M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $58.27M and diluted EPS was $0.15.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for AKBA since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With AKBA analysts setting a high price target of $2.00 and a low target of $2.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $2.00. Based on these targets, AKBA could surge 39.86% to reach the target high and rise by 39.86% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 39.86% 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.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded AKBA stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 19 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 217,124 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 10 while that of sell transactions has risen to 21 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 967,725 while 222,838 shares were sold.
