Octagon Capital Advisors LP Has $10.73 Million Stake in aTyr Pharma, Inc. $ATYR

Key Points

• Octagon Capital Advisors LP significantly increased its investment in aTyr Pharma, Inc. by 294.7%, acquiring a total of 3,552,000 shares, valued at approximately $10.7 million.
• Several institutional investors, including Point72 Asset Management and Millennium Management, also increased their positions in aTyr Pharma during the recent quarters, indicating growing interest in the stock.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on aTyr Pharma, with Jefferies boosting their price target to $17 and Wells Fargo to $25, while the stock currently trades at $5.46 with an average target price of $23.25.

Octagon Capital Advisors LP lifted its stake in aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR - Free Report) by 294.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,552,000 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,652,000 shares during the quarter. aTyr Pharma makes up approximately 1.1% of Octagon Capital Advisors LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Octagon Capital Advisors LP owned approximately 3.99% of aTyr Pharma worth $10,727,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ATYR. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter worth about $17,677,000. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter worth about $6,092,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of aTyr Pharma by 334.5% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,599,041 shares of the company's stock worth $4,829,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231,052 shares during the period. Tang Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,430,000. Finally, MAI Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of aTyr Pharma by 306,100.0% during the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 658,330 shares of the company's stock worth $1,988,000 after acquiring an additional 658,115 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 61.72% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ATYR shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on aTyr Pharma from $17.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on aTyr Pharma from $9.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of aTyr Pharma in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded aTyr Pharma from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have given a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, aTyr Pharma has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $23.25.

aTyr Pharma Trading Up 14.6%

NASDAQ ATYR traded up $0.77 on Friday, reaching $6.03. The company had a trading volume of 16,615,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,697,416. The firm has a market cap of $590.88 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.54 and a beta of 1.01. aTyr Pharma, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1.67 and a fifty-two week high of $7.29. The business has a 50 day moving average of $5.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 5.63 and a quick ratio of 5.63.

aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:ATYR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.04). Analysts forecast that aTyr Pharma, Inc. will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

aTyr Pharma Profile

aTyr Pharma, Inc engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.