Insider Selling: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CFO Sells 41,314 Shares of Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA - Get Free Report) CFO Erik Ostrowski sold 41,314 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.67, for a total value of $151,622.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 503,586 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,848,160.62. This represents a 7.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Akebia Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AKBA traded down $0.03 on Friday, reaching $3.61. 1,565,452 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,151,266. The business's 50-day moving average is $3.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.37. The company has a quick ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $0.91 and a fifty-two week high of $4.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $946.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.17 and a beta of 0.88.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $57.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.88 million. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on AKBA. Leerink Partners started coverage on Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, April 28th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Akebia Therapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 3rd. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Akebia Therapeutics from $4.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Akebia Therapeutics has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $6.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AKBA. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. PDS Planning Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Mariner LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Unified Investment Management boosted its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 47.8% during the first quarter. Unified Investment Management now owns 17,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 5,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new position in Akebia Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors own 33.92% of the company's stock.

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.