Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) Upgraded to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded Atea Pharmaceuticals from “Sell” to “Hold,” while the broader analyst consensus is also “Hold” with a $7.00 price target.
• Atea shares opened at $5.31, up 2.5%, with a market capitalization of approximately $425.9 million; the stock has traded between $2.78 and $6.45 over the past year.
• The company reported a quarterly loss of $0.41 per share, beating the consensus estimate of a $0.56 loss. Institutional investors own approximately 86.67% of the stock.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on AVIR. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $7.00.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.5%

AVIR opened at $5.31 on Friday. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $5.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.09. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $2.78 and a 52 week high of $6.45. The stock has a market cap of $425.89 million, a PE ratio of -2.55 and a beta of 0.28.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.56) by $0.15. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Atea Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,133,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,548,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,023,000. Irenic Capital Management LP bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,623,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter worth approximately $841,000. 86.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of oral antiviral therapeutics targeting RNA viruses. The company's lead program, AT-527, is a direct-acting nucleotide prodrug licensed from Roche and is being evaluated as a potential treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In addition to its COVID-19 efforts, Atea's pipeline includes other small-molecule candidates for hepatitis C virus and emerging RNA pathogens, leveraging its proprietary nucleotide chemistry platform to address significant unmet medical needs in infectious diseases.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Atea operates research laboratories in the Greater Boston area and conducts clinical studies across North America, Europe and parts of Asia.

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