tiprankstipranks
Insiders Turn Bullish on Athira Pharma; Shares Rise
Market News

Insiders Turn Bullish on Athira Pharma; Shares Rise

Story Highlights

Major owner and Director, Perceptive Advisors, acquired 1,371,362 ATHA shares worth $4.1 million at the end of last week.

 

Insiders are making major positive moves at Athira Pharma (ATHA). On July 1, Director Perceptive Advisors LLC, which is a major owner of the stock, lapped up 1.37 million ATHA shares worth $4.1 million.

Athira Pharma is a clinical-stage company developing innovative therapies for neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and neuropsychiatric diseases.

With this latest Buys and current holding of 15.45 million shares worth $4.8 million, Perceptive Advisors now owns a whopping 12.75%, or more than one-tenth of the total shares outstanding.

Further, there was one more insider buying transaction four days ago when the CMO of Precision Parts and EVP Mobility, Hans Moebius, made an informative Buy of 10,000 ATHA shares worth $28,800.

Meanwhile, according to the Tipranks Insider Trading Tool, insiders at Athira Pharma are Neutral about the stock’s near-term prospects and have bought stock worth $4.1 million over the last three months.

Recent Developments

On July 27, Athira Pharma shares crashed over 66% after the company reported that its lead product candidate, fosgonimeton (ATH-1017), did not meet key goals in a mid-stage Phase 2 study trial involving patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).

Fosgonimeton was developed as a first-in-class regenerative therapy for those with AD and dementia.

According to the results of the trial conducted in the U.S. and Australia involving 77 patients, the study did not meet the primary endpoint with a statistically significant change. Furthermore, the secondary endpoints of the trial were also not significant compared to the placebo at 26 weeks.

Wall Street’s Take

Following the news of the Phase 2 study trial, a number of Wall Street analysts downgraded the stock.

Jefferies analyst Andrew Tsai downgraded Athira Pharma from Buy to Hold and slashed the price target by a whopping 90% to $3 (6.8% downside potential) from $32.

The rest of the Wall Street community is cautiously optimistic about the stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on two Buys and four Holds. The average Athira Pharma price target of $15.40 implies 378.26% upside potential to current levels.

Investors Weigh In

According to TipRanks’ Stock Investors tool, not only insiders but investors currently have a Very Positive stance on Athira Pharma. The tool shows that 7.6% of investors have increased their exposure to ATHA stock over the past 30 days.

Conclusion

Shares of the biotech company are now trading at all-time lows of $3.22, much lower than the 52-week highs of $16.65 in November 2021.

The insider trading comes in sharp contrast to the disappointing results on its lead candidate, which was announced recently.

Disclosure

Trending

Name
Price
Price Change
S&P 500
Dow Jones
Nasdaq 100
Bitcoin

Popular Articles