Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,770,000 shares, a decrease of 12.9% from the December 15th total of 3,180,000 shares. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 309,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.0 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atea Pharmaceuticals

In related news, Director Franklin M. Berger sold 359,606 shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.85, for a total transaction of $1,024,877.10. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 451,897 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,287,906.45. The trade was a 44.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 17.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BML Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals by 4.3% in the third quarter. BML Capital Management LLC now owns 6,650,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,278,000 after acquiring an additional 274,379 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,618,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,171,000 after purchasing an additional 182,174 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,733,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,807,000 after purchasing an additional 11,566 shares in the last quarter. Almitas Capital LLC bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $4,271,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,141,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,778,000 after buying an additional 18,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AVIR traded up $0.04 during trading on Friday, hitting $3.37. The company had a trading volume of 337,674 shares, compared to its average volume of 485,999. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $2.75 and a 12 month high of $4.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $284.63 million, a P/E ratio of -1.63 and a beta of 0.20. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.46.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.50) by $0.13. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.40) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -2.01 EPS for the current year.

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes antiviral therapeutics for patients with viral infections. Its lead product candidate is AT-527, an oral antiviral candidate that is in Phase 3 SUNRISE-3 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.