Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: AUPH) stock jumped 7.44% on Monday to $9.24 against a previous-day closing price of $8.60. With 3.93 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 1.7 million shares. During the session, the Biotechnology company that operates in wider Healthcare sector, reached to the highest price of $9.40 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $8.50. The 52-week range on AUPH shows that it touched its highest point at $12.43 and its lowest point at $4.07 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $13.21. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.26.
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 18.16%, but this was up by 23.20% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -1.39% while six-month performance fell -18.09%. The stock gained 94.94% in the past year, while it has gained 113.89% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for AUPH yields -0.54 with Next year EPS estimates of -0.37. For the next quarter, that number is -0.17. This implies an EPS growth rate of 31.36% for this year and 29.71% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 142.27 million AUPH shares are outstanding with a float of 130.54 million shares on hand for trading. On Oct 30, 2023, short shares totaled 17.28 million, which was 12.03% higher than short shares on Sep 28, 2023. In addition to Mr. Peter S. Greenleaf M.B.A. as the firm’s President, CEO & Director, Mr. Joseph M. Miller CPA serves as its Chief Financial Officer.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 38.06% of AUPH’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 23.34% of AUPH, in contrast to 11.96% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 0.51%. As the largest shareholder in AUPH with 4.92% of the stake, BlackRock Fund Advisors holds 7,061,382 shares worth 7,061,382. A second-largest stockholder of AUPH, Armistice Capital LLC, holds 6,048,000 shares, controlling over 4.22% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in AUPH, holding 2,599,535 shares or 1.81% stake. With a 2.20% stake in AUPH, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 3,148,893 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Fidelity Small Cap Index Fund, which owns about 0.87% of AUPH stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 1,242,681 shares valued at 9.12 million. iShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF holds 0.84% of the stake in AUPH, owning 1,206,290 shares worth 8.85 million.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for AUPH 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 AUPH analysts setting a high price target of $15.00 and a low target of $9.50, the average target price over the next 12 months is $13.21. Based on these targets, AUPH could surge 62.34% to reach the target high and rise by 2.81% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 42.97% from current levels.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded AUPH stock several times over the past three months with 0 Buys and 2 Sells. In these transactions, 0 shares were bought while 6,335,710 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 38 while that of sell transactions has risen to 11 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 2,225,739 while 6,427,264 shares were sold.
