Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,570,000 shares, a decline of 21.8% from the October 31st total of 10,960,000 shares. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,630,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.3 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on IRWD shares. Craig Hallum cut their target price on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, September 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $5.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Capital One Financial cut Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $12.00 to $4.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Sravan Kumar Emany sold 11,001 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.08, for a total value of $44,884.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 309,572 shares in the company, valued at $1,263,053.76. This represents a 3.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 12.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IRWD. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 21.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,521,366 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $170,031,000 after buying an additional 3,487,821 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 26.6% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,279,822 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $46,473,000 after acquiring an additional 2,372,183 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,919,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $40,870,000 after acquiring an additional 677,024 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 20.7% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,571,898 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,097 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 44.4% in the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 7,800,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $50,856,000 after purchasing an additional 2,400,000 shares during the period.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IRWD opened at $3.52 on Friday. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $3.26 and a fifty-two week high of $15.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $4.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $563.31 million, a P/E ratio of -117.33 and a beta of 0.47.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.07). Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 0.65% and a negative return on equity of 0.96%. The firm had revenue of $91.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $91.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.12 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a healthcare company, focuses on the development and commercialization of gastrointestinal (GI) products. It markets linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase type-C (GC-C) agonist for the treatment of adults suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation under the LINZESS name in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and China, as well as under the CONSTELLA name in the Canada and European countries.