Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) Downgraded by Craig Hallum to Hold

Craig Hallum cut shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on IRWD. Citizens Jmp cut shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $0.70 target price (down from $8.00) on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Leerink Partners lowered their price target on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $3.00 to $1.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, JMP Securities cut their price objective on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.78.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of IRWD stock opened at $0.73 on Wednesday. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $0.59 and a 12 month high of $8.45. The company has a market capitalization of $117.31 million, a P/E ratio of -24.17 and a beta of 0.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $1.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.04.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Michael Shetzline sold 41,269 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 554,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $975,052.32. This represents a 6.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Thomas A. Mccourt sold 139,064 shares of the 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 $244,752.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,160,634 shares in the company, valued at $2,042,715.84. This trade represents a 10.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 192,381 shares of company stock worth $338,591. 12.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during the third 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. Jane Street Group LLC raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 102.7% during the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 323,638 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 164,006 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $78,000. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 187,773 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $832,000 after purchasing an additional 16,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,000.

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.