AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

AC Immune SA (NASDAQ:ACIU) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 964,900 shares, a growth of 32.0% from the June 30th total of 731,100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 830,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.2 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of AC Immune

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BVF Inc. IL boosted its position in AC Immune by 96.2% during the fourth quarter. BVF Inc. IL now owns 14,571,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,856,000 after purchasing an additional 7,142,857 shares in the last quarter. Avidity Partners Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of AC Immune by 50.5% in the 4th quarter. Avidity Partners Management LP now owns 4,469,080 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,345,000 after buying an additional 1,499,280 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of AC Immune by 294.7% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 439,730 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,755,000 after buying an additional 328,312 shares during the last quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of AC Immune by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,515,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,578,000 after acquiring an additional 193,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nixon Peabody Trust Co. purchased a new stake in AC Immune during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACIU has been the subject of several research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AC Immune from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. BTIG Research began coverage on AC Immune in a research note on Friday, May 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $8.00 price objective on the stock.

AC Immune Price Performance

NASDAQ:ACIU opened at $3.91 on Monday. AC Immune has a 1-year low of $2.20 and a 1-year high of $5.14. The company has a 50-day moving average of $3.94 and a 200 day moving average of $3.44. The firm has a market cap of $386.70 million, a PE ratio of -5.67 and a beta of 1.27.

AC Immune (NASDAQ:ACIU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by ($0.06). Sell-side analysts anticipate that AC Immune will post -0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About AC Immune

AC Immune SA, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, designs, and develops medicines and diagnostic products for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases associated with protein misfolding. Its SupraAntigen and Morphomer platforms are designed to generate vaccines, antibodies, and small molecules, which selectively interact with misfolded proteins that are common in a range of neurodegenerative diseases.