Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA) Stock Price Up 1.8% – Still a Buy?

Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA)’s share price rose 1.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $1.7650 and last traded at $1.72. Approximately 265,138 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 722,669 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.69.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SAVA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Cassava Sciences from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, March 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Cassava Sciences in a research note on Friday, December 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Sell”.

Cassava Sciences Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $83.09 million, a P/E ratio of -0.79 and a beta of -0.85.

Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.04. On average, analysts forecast that Cassava Sciences, Inc. will post -3.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cassava Sciences

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Cassava Sciences by 2,774.3% during the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,061,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,998,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989,572 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cassava Sciences in the 3rd quarter worth about $654,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cassava Sciences by 77.9% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 496,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $744,000 after buying an additional 217,404 shares in the last quarter. Voleon Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Cassava Sciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $414,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Cassava Sciences in the 4th quarter valued at about $277,000. Institutional investors own 38.05% of the company’s stock.

About Cassava Sciences

Cassava Sciences, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies and diagnostics for Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company was originally founded as Pain Therapeutics in 1998 and rebranded to Cassava Sciences in 2017. Cassava’s research program centers on small molecules designed to address underlying mechanisms of neurodegeneration rather than solely targeting amyloid plaques or tau tangles.

The company’s lead drug candidate, simufilam (formerly PTI-125), is a proprietary small molecule that aims to restore normal shape and function to the scaffolding protein filamin A, which has been implicated in impaired neuronal signaling and inflammation in Alzheimer’s patients.