Short Interest in Exagen Inc. (NASDAQ:XGN) Expands By 59.4%

Exagen Inc. (NASDAQ:XGN - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 144,300 shares, a growth of 59.4% from the April 30th total of 90,500 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 193,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.7 days.

Exagen Price Performance

XGN traded down $0.02 on Wednesday, reaching $7.37. The company had a trading volume of 107,544 shares, compared to its average volume of 119,305. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.57. The company has a market cap of $156.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 4.05 and a current ratio of 4.05. Exagen has a 52-week low of $1.71 and a 52-week high of $7.56.

Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.20). The firm had revenue of $15.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.55 million. Exagen had a negative net margin of 30.36% and a negative return on equity of 92.58%. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.19) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Exagen will post -0.88 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on XGN shares. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Exagen from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Exagen in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. UBS Group reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Exagen in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their target price on shares of Exagen from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Exagen in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $7.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in XGN. Toronto Dominion Bank bought a new position in shares of Exagen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,655,000. Driehaus Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Exagen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,716,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Exagen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $66,000. Kennedy Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Exagen by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 184,473 shares of the company's stock worth $756,000 after purchasing an additional 14,920 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Palumbo Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Exagen by 14.4% in the first quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 99,205 shares of the company's stock worth $356,000 after purchasing an additional 12,501 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.25% of the company's stock.

About Exagen

Exagen Inc develops and commercializes various testing products under the AVISE brand in the United States. The company enables healthcare providers to care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).