Baker BROS. Advisors LP Grows Stake in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $ARWR

Baker BROS. Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARWR) by 30.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,175,645 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 504,883 shares during the quarter. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals comprises about 0.8% of Baker BROS. Advisors LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Baker BROS. Advisors LP’s holdings in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals were worth $144,441,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ARWR. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals by 3,142.5% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,081,689 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $71,797,000 after purchasing an additional 2,017,489 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth $113,159,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its holdings in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals by 497.4% during the 4th quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 1,832,997 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $121,693,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526,164 shares during the period. Deerfield Management Company L.P. purchased a new position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth $34,249,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals during the 3rd quarter worth $27,349,000. 62.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ARWR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Leerink Partners boosted their price objective on shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from $61.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.36.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ARWR opened at $81.04 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -37.69 and a beta of 1.28. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 52 week low of $14.30 and a 52 week high of $82.48. The company has a quick ratio of 6.23, a current ratio of 6.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $73.49 and a 200 day moving average of $67.37.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ARWR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.93) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by $0.17. The business had revenue of $73.74 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $73.84 million. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 55.09% and a negative net margin of 48.38%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 86.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals

In other news, insider James C. Hamilton sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $750,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 226,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,021,850. This represents a 4.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Hongbo Lu sold 2,970 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.88, for a total value of $228,333.60. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 52,012 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,998,682.56. The trade was a 5.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 26,065 shares of company stock valued at $1,912,662. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. Since its founding in 2008, Arrowhead has leveraged its proprietary delivery platform—known internally as the Advanced RNAi Compound (ARC) technology—to silence disease-causing genes in patients suffering from genetically defined diseases. The company’s approach aims to offer durable, targeted treatments across a range of therapeutic areas.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple candidates in various stages of development.