Insider Selling: Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) CEO Sells $268,994.70 in Stock

Ardelyx, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARDX) CEO Michael Raab sold 45,982 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.85, for a total transaction of $268,994.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,856,986 shares in the company, valued at $10,863,368.10. The trade was a 2.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Ardelyx Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ARDX opened at $6.56 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 4.31 and a quick ratio of 4.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.24 and a beta of 0.57. Ardelyx, Inc. has a one year low of $3.21 and a one year high of $8.40. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $6.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.14.

Ardelyx (NASDAQ:ARDX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.01) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.03). Ardelyx had a negative net margin of 15.12% and a negative return on equity of 40.63%. The company had revenue of $125.22 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.02 earnings per share. Ardelyx’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ardelyx, Inc. will post -0.18 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ardelyx

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ARDX. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in shares of Ardelyx by 34.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 11,250,652 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $44,103,000 after acquiring an additional 2,866,843 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Ardelyx by 88.8% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,527,988 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $21,670,000 after purchasing an additional 2,600,080 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Ardelyx by 14.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,369,321 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $101,215,000 after purchasing an additional 2,337,672 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Ardelyx by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,912,339 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $69,449,000 after purchasing an additional 2,193,649 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J. Goldman & Co LP lifted its position in Ardelyx by 1,034.8% during the fourth quarter. J. Goldman & Co LP now owns 1,622,736 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $9,461,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479,736 shares during the last quarter. 58.92% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Ardelyx

Here are the key news stories impacting Ardelyx this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Director David M. Mott purchased 333,333 shares (~$1.95M) at about $5.84, increasing his stake by ~11.2% — a strong insider vote of confidence that can support the share price. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Ardelyx announced a multi‑year marketing partnership with the LPGA to raise awareness around digestive health — a branding/awareness initiative that could help commercial uptake of XPHOZAH. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Several brokers reiterated or raised bullish ratings/targets (Wedbush outperform with a ~$19 target, BTIG, HC Wainwright, Citi upgrades), which can attract buyers and lift sentiment. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Quarterly revenue beat ($125.2M vs. $118.0M) and ~7.8% YoY revenue growth — constructive for fundamentals but partially offset by profitability misses. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest data published shows effectively no reported short interest (odd/possibly stale data) — not currently a driver of short‑squeeze dynamics.
• Negative Sentiment: EPS missed expectations (reported a $0.01 loss vs. ~$0.02 expected), which prompted a post‑earnings sell‑off and raised near‑term sentiment risk. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple insiders (including CEO Michael Raab, CFO Susan Hohenleitner and others) sold shares on Feb 20 (CEO sold ~45,982 shares), which investors may read as profit‑taking and can pressure sentiment. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ARDX. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Ardelyx from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $19.00 target price on shares of Ardelyx in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ardelyx in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.09.

About Ardelyx

Ardelyx, Inc (NASDAQ: ARDX) is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing targeted small molecule drugs for cardio‐renal and gastrointestinal diseases. The company’s lead marketed product, tenapanor (sold under the brand name XPHOZAH in the United States), is approved for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis. Ardelyx’s proprietary approach targets epithelial transporters in the gastrointestinal tract, offering localized activity with limited systemic exposure.

Beyond tenapanor, Ardelyx’s development pipeline includes treatments designed to address other complications in kidney disease and related metabolic disorders.