Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) Short Interest Update

Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) saw a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,260,000 shares, an increase of 20.9% from the February 13th total of 4,350,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,140,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.6 days. Currently, 6.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ATYR. Leerink Partners started coverage on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $16.00 target price for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Friday. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Atyr PHARMA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $18.60.

Atyr PHARMA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ATYR opened at $4.01 on Tuesday. Atyr PHARMA has a 1 year low of $1.42 and a 1 year high of $4.66. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.09. The company has a current ratio of 5.41, a quick ratio of 5.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $336.61 million, a PE ratio of -4.27 and a beta of 0.98.

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.23) by $0.05. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Atyr PHARMA will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. D.A. Davidson & CO. acquired a new position in Atyr PHARMA in the 4th quarter valued at $141,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Atyr PHARMA by 52.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 31,440 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 10,754 shares during the period. Alterna Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the 4th quarter worth about $170,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the 4th quarter worth about $319,000. 61.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Atyr PHARMA Company Profile

aTyr Pharma, Inc engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.