Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.00.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ AVIR opened at $5.31 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $5.10 and its 200-day moving average is $5.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $425.92 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.55 and a beta of 0.28. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $2.78 and a one year high of $6.45.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.56) by $0.15. Research analysts expect that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Atea Pharmaceuticals

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth about $36,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals by 57.7% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 19,913 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 7,286 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals by 36.5% in the fourth quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 19,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 5,106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of oral antiviral therapeutics targeting RNA viruses. The company’s lead program, AT-527, is a direct-acting nucleotide prodrug licensed from Roche and is being evaluated as a potential treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In addition to its COVID-19 efforts, Atea’s pipeline includes other small-molecule candidates for hepatitis C virus and emerging RNA pathogens, leveraging its proprietary nucleotide chemistry platform to address significant unmet medical needs in infectious diseases.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Atea operates research laboratories in the Greater Boston area and conducts clinical studies across North America, Europe and parts of Asia.