Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. Makes New Investment in Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX)

Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ARDX. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Ardelyx by 90.0% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 40,417 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $299,000 after acquiring an additional 19,140 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Ardelyx by 328.1% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 12,814 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $88,000 after purchasing an additional 9,821 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Ardelyx by 22.3% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 59,793 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $412,000 after purchasing an additional 10,912 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ardelyx by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 643,912 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,437,000 after purchasing an additional 55,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ardelyx by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. Values First Advisors Inc. now owns 46,282 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $319,000 after purchasing an additional 5,890 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ARDX. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Ardelyx from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Ardelyx to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Ardelyx from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Ardelyx from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $5.50 price target on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ardelyx presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.42.

Ardelyx Stock Performance

ARDX stock opened at $5.52 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.31 billion, a PE ratio of -18.40 and a beta of 0.85. Ardelyx, Inc. has a 12-month low of $4.32 and a 12-month high of $10.13. The company has a current ratio of 4.03, a quick ratio of 3.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.63.

Insider Activity at Ardelyx

In other news, insider Laura A. Williams sold 7,366 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.79, for a total transaction of $35,283.14. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 308,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,478,888.55. This represents a 2.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 31,980 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.79, for a total value of $153,184.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,175,385 shares in the company, valued at $5,630,094.15. The trade was a 2.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 177,938 shares of company stock valued at $924,239. 5.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ardelyx Company Profile

Ardelyx, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes medicines to treat gastrointestinal and cardiorenal therapeutic areas in the United States and internationally. The company’s lead product candidate is tenapanor for the treatment of patients with irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.