Chimerix, Inc. (NASDAQ:CMRX) Short Interest Up 431.1% in December

Chimerix, Inc. (NASDAQ:CMRX) saw a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,440,000 shares, an increase of 431.1% from the November 30th total of 647,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.9 days. Currently, 4.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Chimerix

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in Chimerix by 66.8% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 344,712 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $321,000 after acquiring an additional 138,098 shares during the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Chimerix by 566.9% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 81,766 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 69,505 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Chimerix during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $137,000. Institutional investors own 45.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $6.00 price target on shares of Chimerix in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Chimerix in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th.

Chimerix Price Performance

Chimerix stock traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $3.46. 2,212,308 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,270,028. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $1.09. Chimerix has a fifty-two week low of $0.75 and a fifty-two week high of $3.61. The stock has a market cap of $311.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.68 and a beta of 1.02.

About Chimerix

Chimerix, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines to improve and extend the lives of patients facing deadly diseases. Its pipeline products include ONC201 a program that is in Phase 3 clinical trial for treating patients with H3 K27M-mutant diffuse glioma, as well as in Phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of rare neuroendocrine tumors; and ONC206, an imipridone, Dopamine Receptor D2 (DRD2) antagonist, and caseinolytic protease P (ClpP) agonist, which is in Phase 1 clinical trial for adult and pediatric patients with primary central nervous system tumors.