Insider Selling: Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) SVP Sells $106,062.60 in Stock

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKBA) SVP Steven Keith Burke sold 50,506 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.10, for a total transaction of $106,062.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 816,234 shares in the company, valued at $1,714,091.40. This represents a 5.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Akebia Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ AKBA opened at $2.16 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $471.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.39 and a beta of 0.74. Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $0.80 and a 12 month high of $2.48. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $2.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $1.68.

Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ:AKBA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.10) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.04) by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $37.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $45.66 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.08) earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AKBA. Wealth Effects LLC increased its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Effects LLC now owns 32,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Akebia Therapeutics by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 98,546 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $130,000 after buying an additional 9,662 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Akebia Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Akebia Therapeutics by 25.7% during the third quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 68,064 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 13,907 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Akebia Therapeutics by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 586,710 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,115,000 after acquiring an additional 18,043 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 33.92% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AKBA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Akebia Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $7.50 target price on shares of Akebia Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd.

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.