Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $6.39 and last traded at $6.3460, with a volume of 267649 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $6.15.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on AVIR shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Evercore upgraded shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.00.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $510.13 million, a P/E ratio of -3.30 and a beta of 0.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.52.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The company reported ($0.57) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by ($0.08). As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -2.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Atea Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals by 9.2% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,540,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,468,000 after purchasing an additional 129,453 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 118.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,348,294 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,813,000 after purchasing an additional 731,443 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 43.3% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 698,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,492,000 after buying an additional 210,933 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 38.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 472,522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,687,000 after buying an additional 132,382 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 28.6% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 471,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,367,000 after buying an additional 104,681 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.