Short Interest in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) Increases By 16.5%

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) saw a significant increase in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,530,000 shares, an increase of 16.5% from the October 15th total of 8,180,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,360,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 7.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ACAD has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price target on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com lowered ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on ACADIA Pharmaceuticals from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.56.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Shares of ACAD stock opened at $16.77 on Monday. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $14.15 and a fifty-two week high of $32.59. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $15.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.99. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.50 and a beta of 0.38.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ACAD) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $250.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $248.83 million. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals had a net margin of 13.83% and a return on equity of 25.83%. The company’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, research analysts expect that ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will post 0.72 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ACAD. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 valued at $44,234,000 after acquiring an additional 30,826 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 154,854 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased 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 valued at $91,878,000 after purchasing an additional 173,084 shares during the period. Iron Triangle Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at $11,535,000. Finally, Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new position in ACADIA Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter worth $3,802,000. 96.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.