Insider Selling: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) CAO Sells 13,334 Shares of Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA - Get Free Report) CAO Richard C. Malabre sold 13,334 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.53, for a total transaction of $47,069.02. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 266,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $942,206.42. This represents a 4.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics stock traded up $0.28 on Friday, hitting $3.97. The company had a trading volume of 5,574,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,071,720. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $0.80 and a 52 week high of $4.00. The company has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a PE ratio of -17.21 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.14.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $57.34 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.88 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Akebia Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AKBA. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 502,127 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $954,000 after purchasing an additional 97,409 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 126,380 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $240,000 after purchasing an additional 12,232 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,795,095 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $9,112,000 after purchasing an additional 40,631 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 64.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 181,048 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 70,663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 375,495 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $713,000 after purchasing an additional 102,410 shares during the period. 33.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AKBA has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Akebia Therapeutics from $4.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Akebia Therapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, May 3rd. HC Wainwright assumed coverage on Akebia Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $8.00 price objective on the stock. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, April 28th. They set an "outperform" rating and a $7.00 target price for the company. Finally, Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Akebia Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Akebia Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $6.75.

About Akebia Therapeutics

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapeutics for patients with kidney diseases. The company's lead product investigational product candidate is Vafseo (vadadustat), an oral hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase, which is in Phase III development for the treatment of anemia due to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in dialysis-dependent and non-dialysis dependent patients.