Short Interest in ESSA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX) Expands By 37.6%

ESSA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX) (TSE:EPI) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 951,500 shares, an increase of 37.6% from the November 30th total of 691,500 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 874,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.1 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other ESSA Pharma news, major shareholder Growth N. V. Biotech sold 7,879,583 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.53, for a total transaction of $12,055,761.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 14.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in ESSA Pharma stock. RTW Investments LP raised its position in ESSA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:EPIX) (TSE:EPI) by 41.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,261,496 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 962,834 shares during the quarter. RTW Investments LP owned 7.35% of ESSA Pharma worth $19,765,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. 75.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on EPIX shares. Piper Sandler lowered shares of ESSA Pharma from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $15.00 to $2.00 in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Oppenheimer lowered ESSA Pharma from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut ESSA Pharma from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th.

ESSA Pharma Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of EPIX stock traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $1.80. 1,860,430 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 307,796. ESSA Pharma has a 1 year low of $1.40 and a 1 year high of $11.67. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $2.31 and a 200 day moving average of $4.38. The firm has a market cap of $79.90 million, a PE ratio of -2.90 and a beta of 1.62.

ESSA Pharma (NASDAQ:EPIX) (TSE:EPI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 17th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.05. Analysts expect that ESSA Pharma will post -0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

ESSA Pharma Company Profile

ESSA Pharma Inc, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, focuses the development of small molecule drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer. The company’s lead candidate EPI-7386, an androgen receptor based resistance mechanisms that develop in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.