Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $10.40.

IRWD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Ironwood Pharmaceuticals to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Monday, September 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $5.00 price objective for the company. Craig Hallum reduced their target price on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $14.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Capital One Financial downgraded shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $12.00 to $4.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 8th.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of IRWD opened at $4.21 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $5.49. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $3.79 and a 1 year high of $15.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $672.51 million, a PE ratio of -140.33 and a beta of 0.47.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.07). Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 0.96% and a negative net margin of 0.65%. The business had revenue of $91.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $91.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.12 earnings per share. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals’s quarterly revenue was down 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 21.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,521,366 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $170,031,000 after purchasing an additional 3,487,821 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $46,473,000 after buying an additional 2,372,183 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,919,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,870,000 after buying an additional 677,024 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 20.7% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,571,898 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,889,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,097 shares during the period. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 44.4% during the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 7,800,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $50,856,000 after acquiring an additional 2,400,000 shares during the last quarter.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.