Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) Shares Up 5.8% – Still a Buy?

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) shares shot up 5.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $4.80 and last traded at $4.76. 4,511,224 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 9% from the average session volume of 4,951,766 shares. The stock had previously closed at $4.50.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Citigroup decreased their target price on Ardelyx from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. HC Wainwright downgraded Ardelyx from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $5.50 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Ardelyx from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.42.

Ardelyx Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 3.87 and a current ratio of 4.03. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $5.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $6.24. The company has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.57 and a beta of 0.92.

Insider Activity

In other Ardelyx news, CEO Michael Raab sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.61, for a total transaction of $196,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,220,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,847,610.88. This represents a 2.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider David P. Rosenbaum sold 27,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.10, for a total value of $165,743.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 153,616 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $937,057.60. This represents a 15.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 247,983 shares of company stock valued at $1,514,002. Insiders own 5.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ardelyx

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ARDX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,391,855 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $97,761,000 after buying an additional 365,809 shares during the last quarter. Clay Northam Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 154.7% in the 2nd quarter. Clay Northam Wealth Management LLC now owns 232,377 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,722,000 after buying an additional 141,145 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 100.7% in 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 during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings 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 period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Ardelyx by 283.2% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 91,672 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $679,000 after purchasing an additional 67,750 shares during the period. 58.92% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.