Entera Bio Ltd. (NASDAQ:ENTX) Stock Short Interest Jumps 87.5%

Key Points

• Entera Bio’s short interest surged 87.5% to 2.4 million shares as of September 30, equal to about 1.5% of shares outstanding and 5.2 days of average trading volume.
• The stock opened at $2.50, while Entera Bio reported a quarterly loss of $0.14 per share, missing the $0.08-per-share consensus estimate; analysts expect a full-year loss of $0.40 per share.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed but leans positive, with a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $9.60 versus the current price. Renaissance Technologies also increased its stake by 338.4% in the first quarter.

Entera Bio Ltd. (NASDAQ:ENTX - Get Free Report) was the target of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 2,403,597 shares, a growth of 87.5% from the September 15th total of 1,281,818 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 464,319 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.2 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Entera Bio Price Performance

NASDAQ:ENTX opened at $2.50 on Thursday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $2.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.00. Entera Bio has a 1-year low of $0.91 and a 1-year high of $4.20. The firm has a market cap of $434.81 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.14 and a beta of 1.40.

Entera Bio (NASDAQ:ENTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by ($0.06). As a group, analysts expect that Entera Bio will post -0.40 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ENTX. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on shares of Entera Bio in a research report on Friday, September 18th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $9.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group set a $9.00 target price on shares of Entera Bio in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Entera Bio in a research note on Friday, July 17th. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Entera Bio in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Entera Bio to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $9.60.

Institutional Trading of Entera Bio

A hedge fund recently raised its position in Entera Bio stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in Entera Bio Ltd. (NASDAQ:ENTX - Free Report) by 338.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 473,442 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 365,441 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.96% of Entera Bio worth $526,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 14.11% of the company's stock.

About Entera Bio

Entera Bio Ltd. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing orally delivered biologic medicines. The company's proprietary platform is designed to enable the oral administration of large-molecule therapies, including peptides and proteins that are traditionally delivered by injection.

Entera Bio's pipeline has included EB613, an oral formulation of parathyroid hormone fragment (teriparatide) being developed for the treatment of osteoporosis, and EB612, an oral parathyroid hormone product intended for hypoparathyroidism.

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