Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Lowers Stock Position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. $ACAD

Key Points

• The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reduced its holdings in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 62.9%, selling 491,200 shares and owning approximately 289,500 shares worth $4.8 million at the end of Q1.
• Several institutional investors increased their positions in ACADIA, with Comerica Bank notably raising its stake by 4,770.1%, while overall institutional ownership stands at 96.71%.
• Analysts have varied target prices on ACADIA's stock, with JMP Securities and Royal Bank of Canada raising their targets to $38.00 and $40.00 respectively, indicating a "market outperform" and "outperform" rating.

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board decreased its position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD - Free Report) by 62.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 289,500 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock after selling 491,200 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.17% of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals worth $4,809,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ACAD. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 645.7% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 310,332 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $5,065,000 after acquiring an additional 268,714 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 627.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,513 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 3,030 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the 1st quarter worth approximately $247,000. Amalgamated Bank grew its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 757.7% in the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 35,002 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $581,000 after buying an additional 30,921 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,086,840 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $19,932,000 after purchasing an additional 243,082 shares in the last quarter. 96.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $24.00 price target on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday. Oppenheimer restated a "market perform" rating and set a $22.00 price target (up from $19.00) on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $28.88.

Insider Activity at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

In related news, Director Elizabeth A. Garofalo sold 1,600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.98, for a total transaction of $41,568.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 25,382 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $659,424.36. The trade was a 5.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark C. Schneyer sold 22,000 shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.18, for a total value of $553,960.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 40,130 shares in the company, valued at $1,010,473.40. The trade was a 35.41% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 28.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.9%

NASDAQ:ACAD traded up $0.24 on Monday, hitting $25.50. The company had a trading volume of 746,642 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,151,379. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.40 and a 52 week high of $26.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.21, a PEG ratio of 6.40 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $23.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.16.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $264.57 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $263.07 million. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 21.80% and a return on equity of 14.69%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Profile

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome.