Short Interest in IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDYA) Expands By 6.7%

IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:IDYA) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,410,000 shares, an increase of 6.7% from the March 15th total of 8,820,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 905,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 10.4 days. Currently, 14.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Yujiro S. Hata sold 23,557 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.54, for a total transaction of $1,072,785.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 677,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,870,973.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other IDEAYA Biosciences news, insider Briseno Andres Ruiz sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.02, for a total value of $92,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 24,531 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,128,916.62. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Yujiro S. Hata sold 23,557 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.54, for a total transaction of $1,072,785.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 677,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,870,973.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,557 shares of company stock worth $1,248,886 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 5.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of IDEAYA Biosciences

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IDYA. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of IDEAYA Biosciences by 22.7% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,355,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,359,000 after buying an additional 806,603 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of IDEAYA Biosciences by 14.8% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 3,883,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,185,000 after buying an additional 500,046 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of IDEAYA Biosciences by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,566,278 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,889,000 after purchasing an additional 535,909 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of IDEAYA Biosciences by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,475,772 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,668,000 after purchasing an additional 504,275 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in IDEAYA Biosciences by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,138,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,255,000 after buying an additional 24,186 shares during the last quarter. 98.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on IDYA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of IDEAYA Biosciences from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Leerink Partnrs restated an “outperform” rating on shares of IDEAYA Biosciences in a report on Friday, February 23rd. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of IDEAYA Biosciences in a report on Friday, March 8th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of IDEAYA Biosciences from $40.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of IDEAYA Biosciences from $43.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $44.55.

IDEAYA Biosciences Stock Performance

Shares of IDYA traded down $0.59 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $40.58. The company had a trading volume of 116,336 shares, compared to its average volume of 852,368. IDEAYA Biosciences has a 1 year low of $14.33 and a 1 year high of $47.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -20.57 and a beta of 0.80. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.91.

IDEAYA Biosciences (NASDAQ:IDYA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The company reported ($0.52) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.47) by ($0.05). IDEAYA Biosciences had a negative return on equity of 23.00% and a negative net margin of 483.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.84 million. The company’s revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that IDEAYA Biosciences will post -2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About IDEAYA Biosciences

IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc, a synthetic lethality-focused precision medicine oncology company, discovers and develops targeted therapeutics for patient populations selected using molecular diagnostics in the United States. The company's products in development include IDE196, a protein kinase C inhibitor that is in Phase 2/3 clinical trials for genetically defined cancers having GNAQ or GNA11 gene mutations; IDE397, a methionine adenosyltransferase 2a inhibitor that is in Phase 1/2 clinical trials for patients with solid tumors having methylthioadenosine phosphorylase gene deletions, such as non-small cell lung, bladder, gastric, and esophageal cancers; IDE161, a poly ADP-ribose glycohydrolase inhibitor that is in Phase 1 clinical trial to treat tumors with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), and other genetic or molecular signatures; GSK101, a Pol Theta Helicase inhibitor that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of tumors with BRCA or other homologous recombination, and HRD mutations; and Werner Helicase inhibitors for tumors with high microsatellite instability.