Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Buy" from the five brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $6.75.

A number of equities analysts have commented on AKBA shares. Leerink Partnrs raised Akebia Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Wall Street Zen raised Akebia Therapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Akebia Therapeutics from $4.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Leerink Partners started coverage on Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, April 28th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They issued a "buy" rating and a $6.00 price objective on the stock.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

AKBA stock traded up $0.12 during trading on Thursday, hitting $3.68. The company had a trading volume of 9,315,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,228,341. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $2.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.27. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89. The company has a market cap of $966.50 million, a P/E ratio of -17.52 and a beta of 0.85. Akebia Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $0.80 and a fifty-two week high of $4.08.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Richard C. Malabre sold 13,334 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.53, for a total transaction of $47,069.02. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 266,914 shares of the company's stock, valued at $942,206.42. This represents a 4.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Akebia Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AKBA. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 117.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 543,916 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 294,343 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 502,127 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $954,000 after purchasing an additional 97,409 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 126,380 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $240,000 after purchasing an additional 12,232 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 64.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 181,048 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 70,663 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,795,095 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $9,112,000 after purchasing an additional 40,631 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.