Assembly Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASMB) Short Interest Up 57.3% in August

Assembly Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASMB) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 16,200 shares, an increase of 57.3% from the August 15th total of 10,300 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 16,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assembly Biosciences news, major shareholder Alexander Schornstein bought 4,438 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $12.52 per share, with a total value of $55,563.76. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 693,113 shares in the company, valued at $8,677,774.76. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assembly Biosciences

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Assembly Biosciences by 131.0% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 13,558 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $184,000 after acquiring an additional 7,690 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Assembly Biosciences by 39.2% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 54,911 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $753,000 after purchasing an additional 15,451 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC bought a new position in Assembly Biosciences in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,421,000. 19.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Assembly Biosciences in a research report on Thursday, June 20th.

Assembly Biosciences Stock Performance

Shares of ASMB traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $18.07. The stock had a trading volume of 26,850 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,721. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.27. Assembly Biosciences has a twelve month low of $7.69 and a twelve month high of $20.04.

Assembly Biosciences (NASDAQ:ASMB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.98) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.96) by $0.98. The firm had revenue of $8.53 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.96 million. Equities analysts expect that Assembly Biosciences will post -7.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Assembly Biosciences

Assembly Biosciences, Inc, a biotechnology company, develops therapeutic candidates for the treatment of viral diseases. It develops ABI-5366, a long-acting herpes simplex virus (HSV) helicase-primase inhibitor that is in Phase 1a/1b clinical trial to treat recurrent genital herpes; ABI-1179, which is in Phase 1a/1b clinical trial for the treatment of recurrent genital herpes; and ABI-6250, a small molecule orally bioavailable hepatitis delta virus entry inhibitor that is in Phase 1a clinical trial.