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

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

Atyr PHARMA Stock Down 3.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ ATYR opened at $3.87 on Wednesday. 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 5.41 and a quick ratio of 5.41. The business has a 50-day moving average of $3.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.11. Atyr PHARMA has a 1 year low of $1.42 and a 1 year high of $4.66.

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by $0.05. On average, analysts forecast that Atyr PHARMA will post -0.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Atyr PHARMA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,093,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the 4th quarter valued at about $17,677,000. Tikvah Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the 4th quarter valued at about $8,908,000. Woodline Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,092,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Atyr PHARMA in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,628,000. 61.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ATYR shares. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Atyr PHARMA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Leerink Partners assumed coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $16.00 price objective on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $18.60.

Atyr PHARMA Company Profile

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.