Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) Insider Sells $333,574.15 in Stock

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) insider Laura A. Williams sold 39,949 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.35, for a total value of $333,574.15. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 370,189 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,091,078.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Ardelyx Stock Down 5.0 %

NASDAQ ARDX opened at $8.06 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $7.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 4.53 and a quick ratio of 4.36. Ardelyx, Inc. has a one year low of $3.16 and a one year high of $10.13. The firm has a market cap of $1.89 billion, a PE ratio of -28.79 and a beta of 0.87.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.02. Ardelyx had a negative return on equity of 41.65% and a negative net margin of 41.36%. The company had revenue of $46.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.13) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 303.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ardelyx

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARDX. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Ardelyx during the first quarter worth approximately $341,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in Ardelyx by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 57,729 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $421,000 after purchasing an additional 4,735 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ardelyx by 100.7% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 536,297 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,915,000 after buying an additional 269,046 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 458,300 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,346,000 after buying an additional 28,900 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Ardelyx by 347.4% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 122,811 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $897,000 after acquiring an additional 95,361 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ARDX. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of Ardelyx from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ardelyx from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Leerink Partnrs reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, April 5th. Citigroup increased their target price on Ardelyx from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Friday, January 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.81.

About Ardelyx

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.