ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) Stock Price Up 6.4% – Still a Buy?

Shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) rose 6.4% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $18.78 and last traded at $18.95. Approximately 661,907 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 4,556,582 shares. The stock had previously closed at $17.81.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ACAD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Guggenheim cut shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.25.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 7.1 %

The stock has a market cap of $3.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.46 and a beta of 0.37. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $17.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.58.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.06. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 13.83% and a return on equity of 25.83%. The company had revenue of $250.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.40) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other ACADIA Pharmaceuticals news, CFO Mark C. Schneyer sold 10,259 shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total transaction of $172,453.79. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 53,302 shares in the company, valued at $896,006.62. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider James Kihara sold 4,073 shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total transaction of $68,467.13. Following the sale, the insider now owns 19,863 shares in the company, valued at $333,897.03. This represents a 17.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,661 shares of company stock valued at $414,551 over the last 90 days. 28.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 67.0% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 5,093 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $93,000 after purchasing an additional 2,044 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 380.3% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,483,731 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $45,576,000 after purchasing an additional 1,966,607 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 103,325 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,896,000 after purchasing an additional 7,491 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. bought a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,953,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.71% of the company’s stock.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome.