In a report released today, Reni Benjamin from Raymond James initiated coverage with a Buy rating on Akebia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AKBA) and a price target of $18. The company’s shares opened today at $7.82, close to its 52-week low of $7.69.
Benjamin noted:
“We are initiating coverage of Outperform rating (High Risk/Speculation suitability, given the company is in the clinical stage of development) and an $18 target price. In our view, the company is developing a novel therapy, vadadustat, for chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated anemia, which represents a >$10 billion market opportunity. With positive clinical data generated by vadadustat as well as other agents of the same class, multiple Phase III trial read-outs expected in the next 12-24 months, several partnerships with multi-national pharma companies, a pending merger with Keryx Biopharmaceuticals that could bring in revenues of $234 million in 2020, and a solid cash position of ~$402 million (pro forma), we recommend shares of Akebia to risk-tolerant, long-term investors.”
According to TipRanks.com, Benjamin is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 3.8% and a 40.0% success rate. Benjamin covers the Healthcare sector, focusing on stocks such as Alpine Immune Sciences Inc, Adaptimmune Therapeutics, and Bellicum Pharmaceuticals.
Akebia Therapeutics has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of $19.20, implying a 145.5% upside from current levels. In a report issued on August 9, Mizuho Securities also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $21 price target.
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The company has a one-year high of $20.25 and a one-year low of $7.69. Currently, Akebia Therapeutics has an average volume of 545.8K.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 12 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is positive on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders buying their shares of AKBA in relation to earlier this year. Last month, John P. Butler, the CEO & President of AKBA bought 100,000 shares for a total of $47,000.
TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.
Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company, which engages in the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for hypoxia-inducible factor. It also involves in the development and commercialization of drugs for the treatment of renal and metabolic disorders.
