ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $16.69, but opened at $18.24. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals shares last traded at $18.42, with a volume of 1,043,031 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on ACAD shares. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $27.00 price target on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com lowered ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.60.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.94 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.32.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $250.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $248.83 million. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a return on equity of 25.83% and a net margin of 13.83%. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.40) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

In other ACADIA Pharmaceuticals news, COO Brendan Teehan sold 10,329 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 62,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,043,985.05. This represents a 14.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider James Kihara sold 4,073 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.81, for a total value of $68,467.13. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $333,897.03. This represents a 17.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,661 shares of company stock valued at $414,551. 28.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Park Place Capital Corp bought a new stake in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth $25,000. Values First Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth $27,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 42.3% in the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,520 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the last quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $81,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 5,999 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 1,066 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.71% of the company’s stock.

About ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

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.