Insider Selling: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CAO Sells 30,202 Shares of Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CAO Richard C. Malabre sold 30,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total transaction of $63,424.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 280,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $588,520.80. This represents a 9.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Akebia Therapeutics Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AKBA traded up $0.02 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $2.14. 1,343,441 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,507,634. The firm has a market cap of $466.91 million, a P/E ratio of -9.30 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1.67. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $0.80 and a 1-year high of $2.48.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $37.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $45.66 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.08) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AKBA. Wealth Effects LLC increased its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Effects LLC now owns 32,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $44,000. AlphaMark Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $73,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $44,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $58,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AKBA shares. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $7.50 target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th.

About Akebia Therapeutics

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company’s lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients.