Exagen Inc. (NASDAQ:XGN) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Exagen Inc. (NASDAQ:XGN) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 26,700 shares, an increase of 260.8% from the January 15th total of 7,400 shares. Currently, 0.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 170,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 0.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Exagen

In other news, major shareholder Nmsic Co-Investment Fund, L.P. sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.30, for a total transaction of $660,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 2,108,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,959,561.40. This trade represents a 8.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO John Aballi purchased 24,305 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $2.81 per share, for a total transaction of $68,297.05. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 689,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,938,335.19. This trade represents a 3.65 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 26.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Exagen

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in XGN. Verus Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Exagen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Exagen in the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Exagen during the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Creative Planning bought a new position in shares of Exagen during the 3rd quarter valued at $110,000. Finally, Palumbo Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Exagen by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 76,364 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 9,695 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.25% of the company’s stock.

Exagen Trading Down 7.7 %

Exagen stock traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $4.42. The stock had a trading volume of 58,800 shares, compared to its average volume of 210,790. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $3.45. Exagen has a twelve month low of $1.30 and a twelve month high of $6.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 4.05 and a quick ratio of 4.05. The firm has a market cap of $77.97 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.70 and a beta of 1.41.

Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.28) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.02. Exagen had a negative net margin of 30.36% and a negative return on equity of 92.58%. The firm had revenue of $12.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.55 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.31) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Exagen will post -0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Exagen in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of Exagen in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group raised their target price on shares of Exagen from $5.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd.

Exagen Company Profile

Exagen Inc develops and commercializes various testing products under the AVISE brand in the United States. The company enables healthcare providers to care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).