Short Interest in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) Expands By 14.5%

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,720,000 shares, an increase of 14.5% from the December 15th total of 9,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on ACAD shares. Guggenheim cut ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ACADIA Pharmaceuticals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.25.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $17.57 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $17.22 and a 200 day moving average of $16.53. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $14.15 and a 12 month high of $29.29. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 22.53 and a beta of 0.37.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $250.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.83 million. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 25.83% and a net margin of 13.83%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.40) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider James Kihara sold 4,073 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $333,897.03. This represents a 17.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Mark C. Schneyer sold 10,259 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total value of $172,453.79. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 53,302 shares in the company, valued at approximately $896,006.62. The trade was a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 ninety days. 28.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,973,874 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $91,878,000 after acquiring an additional 173,084 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,186,389 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $49,007,000 after acquiring an additional 481,950 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 36.2% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,937,714 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $47,738,000 after acquiring an additional 781,070 shares during the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 11.1% during the 2nd quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 2,934,926 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $47,693,000 after acquiring an additional 292,906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,875,540 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $44,234,000 after acquiring an additional 30,826 shares during the last quarter. 96.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

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.