Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Boosts Position in Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) by 42.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,486 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,933 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Ardelyx were worth $84,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ARDX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Ardelyx by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,362,659 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $72,819,000 after acquiring an additional 767,111 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in Ardelyx by 67.2% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,452,176 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,363,000 after buying an additional 583,550 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Ardelyx by 175.5% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 469,819 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,382,000 after buying an additional 299,275 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ardelyx in the fourth quarter worth about $930,000. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ardelyx by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,141,850 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $83,657,000 after acquiring an additional 176,789 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.92% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price target on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Friday, March 7th. BTIG Research initiated coverage on Ardelyx in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $14.00 target price for the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Ardelyx from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Ardelyx to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $5.50 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David M. Mott purchased 199,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was acquired at an average price of $4.99 per share, for a total transaction of $993,010.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 1,937,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,669,447.35. This represents a 11.44 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Michael Raab sold 41,666 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.36, for a total value of $223,329.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,108,719 shares in the company, valued at $5,942,733.84. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 158,076 shares of company stock valued at $823,804 in the last three months. 5.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ardelyx Stock Up 4.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ ARDX opened at $4.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.06 billion, a PE ratio of -27.88 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a current ratio of 4.58, a quick ratio of 4.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Ardelyx, Inc. has a 12-month low of $4.02 and a 12-month high of $9.33. The company has a 50-day moving average of $5.22 and a 200 day moving average of $5.40.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02. Ardelyx had a negative return on equity of 24.87% and a negative net margin of 11.73%. The business had revenue of $116.13 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.16 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.