Ardelyx Inc (ARDX) can make a big difference with a little luck

Ardelyx Inc (NASDAQ: ARDX) stock jumped 7.44% on Friday to $4.33 against a previous-day closing price of $4.03. With 7.33 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 6.8 million shares. During the session, the Biotechnology company that operates in wider Healthcare sector, reached to the highest price of $4.4500 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $4.0100. The 52-week range on ARDX shows that it touched its highest point at $5.12 and its lowest point at $1.56 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $9.58. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.00.

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 ARDX was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 21.63%, but this was up by 19.12% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 20.95% while six-month performance rose 21.97%. The stock gained 254.92% in the past year, while it has gained 51.93% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for ARDX yields -0.12 with Next year EPS estimates of -0.24. For the next quarter, that number is -0.10. This implies an EPS growth rate of 28.73% for this year and 19.60% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 30.00% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 20.81%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 232.14 million ARDX shares are outstanding with a float of 222.68 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 36.47 million, which was 15.71% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Mr. Michael G. Raab as the firm’s President, CEO & Director, Ms. Susan Rodriguez serves as its Chief Commercial Officer.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 56.10% of ARDX’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 32.35% of ARDX, in contrast to 25.50% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 12.43%. As the largest shareholder in ARDX with 12.47% of the stake, Janus Henderson Investors US LLC holds 27,172,266 shares worth 27,172,266. A second-largest stockholder of ARDX, SSgA Funds Management, Inc., holds 13,125,996 shares, controlling over 6.03% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in ARDX, holding 12,996,098 shares or 5.97% stake. With a 4.37% stake in ARDX, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 9,514,290 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 3.15% of ARDX stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 6,867,148 shares valued at 27.13 million. iShares Russell 2000 ETF holds 2.26% of the stake in ARDX, owning 4,918,389 shares worth 19.43 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for ARDX 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 ARDX analysts setting a high price target of $12.00 and a low target of $6.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $9.58. Based on these targets, ARDX could surge 177.14% to reach the target high and rise by 38.57% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 121.25% from current levels.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded ARDX stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 10 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 34,593 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 15 while that of sell transactions has risen to 54 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 888,753 while 184,249 shares were sold.