Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) saw a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,260,000 shares, a growth of 20.9% from the February 13th total of 4,350,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days. Currently, 6.5% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Atyr PHARMA

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Group One Trading LLC acquired a new stake in Atyr PHARMA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Alterna Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 61.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ATYR. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $16.00 target price on the stock. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Atyr PHARMA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.60.

Atyr PHARMA Stock Down 3.5 %

Shares of ATYR opened at $3.87 on Wednesday. Atyr PHARMA has a 52 week low of $1.42 and a 52 week high of $4.66. The company has a quick ratio of 5.41, a current ratio of 5.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a market capitalization of $324.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.12 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $3.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.11.

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.05. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Atyr PHARMA will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

About Atyr PHARMA

aTyr Pharma, Inc engages in the discovery and development of medicines based on novel biological pathways. Its product pipeline includes ATYR1923, ATYR2810, NRP2 mAbs, and AARS-1, DARS-1. The company was founded by Paul Schimmel, Xiang-Lei Yang and Bruce Beutler on September 8, 2005 and is headquartered in San Diego, CA.