Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning.

IRWD has been the topic of a number of other reports. JMP Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Craig Hallum reduced their price objective on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.60.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 7.8 %

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $1.41 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.48. The stock has a market cap of $225.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -47.00 and a beta of 0.37. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $1.34 and a 52 week high of $9.01.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.08). Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 0.96% and a negative net margin of 0.65%. The firm had revenue of $90.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.85 million. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CMO Michael Shetzline sold 41,269 shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total transaction of $72,633.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 554,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $975,052.32. The trade was a 6.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Thomas A. Mccourt sold 139,064 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total value of $244,752.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,160,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,042,715.84. The trade was a 10.70 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 192,381 shares of company stock valued at $338,591 over the last ninety days. 12.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IRWD. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 26.6% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,279,822 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $46,473,000 after purchasing an additional 2,372,183 shares in the last quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 1,982.8% during the 3rd quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC now owns 1,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,120,000 after acquiring an additional 951,988 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,919,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,870,000 after acquiring an additional 677,024 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 47.4% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,567,535 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $6,944,000 after acquiring an additional 504,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 9,066,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,163,000 after buying an additional 469,043 shares during the period.

About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a healthcare company, focuses on the development and commercialization of gastrointestinal (GI) products. It markets linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase type-C (GC-C) agonist for the treatment of adults suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation under the LINZESS name in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and China, as well as under the CONSTELLA name in the Canada and European countries.