Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) Short Interest Up 25.0% in January

Atyr PHARMA INC (NASDAQ:ATYR) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,650,000 shares, an increase of 25.0% from the December 31st total of 2,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,060,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days. Currently, 4.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on ATYR. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research note on Friday, October 4th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Atyr PHARMA in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of Atyr PHARMA in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.25.

Atyr PHARMA Stock Up 3.0 %

ATYR stock traded up $0.11 during trading on Thursday, hitting $3.74. 571,581 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 819,320. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.66. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $313.94 million, a P/E ratio of -3.98 and a beta of 1.08. Atyr PHARMA has a 1 year low of $1.42 and a 1 year high of $4.22.

Atyr PHARMA (NASDAQ:ATYR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.23) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by ($0.01). Sell-side analysts anticipate that Atyr PHARMA will post -0.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Atyr PHARMA

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Atyr PHARMA by 52.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 31,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 10,754 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the fourth quarter worth $170,000. Finally, Alterna Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Atyr PHARMA during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. 61.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.