Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) Shares Gap Up to $5.28

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $5.28, but opened at $5.53. Ardelyx shares last traded at $5.16, with a volume of 2,389,711 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ARDX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. SVB Leerink started coverage on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Friday, April 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $14.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Ardelyx from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $15.00 to $7.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ardelyx from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.81.

Ardelyx Stock Down 0.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 4.53, a quick ratio of 4.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $7.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.64.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.02. The company had revenue of $46.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.40 million. Ardelyx had a negative net margin of 41.36% and a negative return on equity of 41.65%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 303.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.13) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ardelyx news, CEO Michael Raab sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.40, for a total transaction of $192,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,310,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,389,971.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Michael Raab sold 30,000 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.40, for a total value of $192,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,310,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,389,971.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Robert Ora Felsch sold 207,988 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.81, for a total transaction of $1,832,374.28. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 95,947 shares in the company, valued at $845,293.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 534,119 shares of company stock valued at $4,117,225 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ardelyx

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. HighMark Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ardelyx in the first quarter worth approximately $36,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in Ardelyx during the first quarter valued at approximately $64,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. purchased a new position in Ardelyx during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in Ardelyx during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in Ardelyx during the first quarter valued at approximately $86,000. 58.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ardelyx Company Profile

Ardelyx, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines to treat gastrointestinal and cardiorenal therapeutic areas in the United States and internationally. The company's lead product candidate is tenapanor for the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.