Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Down 61.1% in October

Key Points

• Atea Pharmaceuticals’ short interest fell 61.1% in October to 3.07 million shares, representing 4.9% of shares outstanding and a days-to-cover ratio of 10.7.
• Analyst views remain mixed, but the overall consensus is “Hold” with a target price of $7.00; Morgan Stanley raised its target from $6.00 to $7.00.
• The stock opened at $4.27, while Atea reported a quarterly loss of $0.41 per share—better than the expected $0.56 loss—and institutional investors own 86.67% of the company.

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR - Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,070,296 shares, a drop of 61.1% from the September 30th total of 7,886,499 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 287,224 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 10.7 days. Currently, 4.9% of the company's shares are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AVIR. Wall Street Zen upgraded Atea Pharmaceuticals from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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 investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $7.00.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 2.4%

NASDAQ:AVIR opened at $4.27 on Thursday. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $2.87 and a 52 week high of $6.45. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $5.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.90. The stock has a market cap of $342.48 million, a PE ratio of -2.05 and a beta of 0.39.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Atea Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 1st quarter valued at $86,000. Spark Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $77,000. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $78,000. Institutional investors own 86.67% of the company's stock.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing oral antiviral therapies for serious infectious diseases. The company's research platform is based on nucleotide and nucleoside prodrug technologies designed to target viral replication.

Atea's lead product candidate is bemnifosbuvir, formerly known as AT-527, an orally administered antiviral that has been evaluated for the treatment of COVID-19. The company has also investigated bemnifosbuvir and related antiviral approaches for other viral infections, including hepatitis C.

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