ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,240,000 shares, a growth of 7.5% from the October 31st total of 9,530,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Mark C. Schneyer sold 10,259 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total value of $172,453.79. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 53,302 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $896,006.62. This trade represents a 16.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Brendan Teehan sold 10,329 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total value of $173,630.49. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 62,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,043,985.05. The trade was a 14.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,661 shares of company stock valued at $414,551 over the last quarter. Insiders own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,875,540 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $44,234,000 after acquiring an additional 30,826 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 126.2% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 277,565 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,269,000 after acquiring an additional 154,854 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 3.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,973,874 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $91,878,000 after purchasing an additional 173,084 shares in the last quarter. Iron Triangle Partners LP bought a new position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth about $11,535,000. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,802,000. 96.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACAD has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $28.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com cut ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.56.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ACAD opened at $16.61 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a PE ratio of 20.69 and a beta of 0.38. The business has a fifty day moving average of $15.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.01. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $14.15 and a 52-week high of $32.59.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.06. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 25.83% and a net margin of 13.83%. The firm had revenue of $250.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $248.83 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.40) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization innovative medicines that address unmet medical needs in central nervous system (CNS) disorders and rare diseases in the United States. The company offers NUPLAZID (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson's disease psychosis; and DAYBUE, a novel synthetic analog of the amino-terminal tripeptide of insulin-like growth factor 1 for treatment of Rett Syndrome.