Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Invests $186,000 in Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 30,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 235.9% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,733 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 4,026 shares during the period. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can acquired a new stake in Ardelyx during the first quarter valued at $44,000. Willis Johnson & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Ardelyx during the third quarter valued at $41,000. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. acquired a new stake in Ardelyx during the fourth quarter valued at $62,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Ardelyx during the first quarter valued at $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ardelyx news, CEO Michael Raab sold 7,500 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.06, for a total transaction of $52,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,310,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,255,186.98. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ardelyx news, insider David P. Rosenbaum sold 5,183 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.20, for a total transaction of $47,683.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 175,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,618,611.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 7,500 shares of Ardelyx stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.06, for a total transaction of $52,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,310,933 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,255,186.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 148,820 shares of company stock valued at $1,208,524 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ardelyx from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, January 12th. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, April 5th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Ardelyx from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Ardelyx from $9.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.69.

Ardelyx Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARDX opened at $6.55 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $8.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $6.57. The company has a current ratio of 4.88, a quick ratio of 4.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.83 and a beta of 0.85. Ardelyx, Inc. has a twelve month low of $3.16 and a twelve month high of $10.13.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.09) by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $34.36 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.26 million. Ardelyx had a negative return on equity of 43.57% and a negative net margin of 53.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 22.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.06 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ardelyx 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.