Analysts Set Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) PT at $15.70

Shares of Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $15.70.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Friday, February 20th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Thursday, January 8th.

Insider Activity at Ardelyx

In other news, insider Joseph James Reilly sold 4,991 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.85, for a total transaction of $29,197.35. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 151,790 shares in the company, valued at $887,971.50. This represents a 3.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 41,666 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.84, for a total value of $243,329.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,816,448 shares in the company, valued at $10,608,056.32. The trade was a 2.24% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 178,604 shares of company stock worth $1,100,917. 4.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ardelyx

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Ardelyx by 34.2% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 11,250,652 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $44,103,000 after buying an additional 2,866,843 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Ardelyx by 88.8% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,527,988 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $21,670,000 after buying an additional 2,600,080 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Ardelyx by 14.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,369,321 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $101,215,000 after buying an additional 2,337,672 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Ardelyx by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,912,339 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $69,449,000 after buying an additional 2,193,649 shares during the period. Finally, J. Goldman & Co LP increased its position in shares of Ardelyx by 1,034.8% in the fourth quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP now owns 1,622,736 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $9,461,000 after acquiring an additional 1,479,736 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Ardelyx Price Performance

ARDX stock opened at $5.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a P/E ratio of -23.76 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 4.11 and a current ratio of 4.31. Ardelyx has a one year low of $3.21 and a one year high of $8.40. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $6.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $6.08.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $125.22 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.04 million. Ardelyx had a negative return on equity of 40.63% and a negative net margin of 15.12%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.02 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ardelyx will post -0.18 EPS for the current year.

About Ardelyx

Ardelyx, Inc (NASDAQ: ARDX) is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing targeted small molecule drugs for cardio‐renal and gastrointestinal diseases. The company’s lead marketed product, tenapanor (sold under the brand name XPHOZAH in the United States), is approved for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis. Ardelyx’s proprietary approach targets epithelial transporters in the gastrointestinal tract, offering localized activity with limited systemic exposure.

Beyond tenapanor, Ardelyx’s development pipeline includes treatments designed to address other complications in kidney disease and related metabolic disorders.