Stock Traders Buy High Volume of aTyr Pharma Put Options (NASDAQ:ATYR)

Key Points

• aTyr Pharma saw a significant spike in options trading with an increase of approximately 325% as traders bought nearly 10,000 put options on the stock.
• The stock price of aTyr Pharma dropped 12% in one day, closing at $5.42 with a high trading volume of over 6 million shares.
• Despite the stock's recent decline, several analysts maintain a positive outlook, with an average target price of $20.20 and multiple buy ratings from research firms.

aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 9,984 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 325% compared to the average volume of 2,351 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ATYR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and set a $35.00 price objective on shares of aTyr Pharma in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on aTyr Pharma from $17.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $20.20.

aTyr Pharma Trading Down 5.7%

ATYR stock traded down $0.30 on Wednesday, reaching $4.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,776,294 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,496,790. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.04. aTyr Pharma has a 12-month low of $1.67 and a 12-month high of $7.29. The firm has a market cap of $439.66 million, a PE ratio of -6.10 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 7.79 and a current ratio of 7.79.

aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:ATYR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.02. As a group, research analysts forecast that aTyr Pharma will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On aTyr Pharma

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ATYR. Group One Trading LLC bought a new position in aTyr Pharma in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of aTyr Pharma during the first quarter valued at $38,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter valued at $39,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP bought a new position in shares of aTyr Pharma during the fourth quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors own 61.72% of the company's stock.

About aTyr Pharma

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.