Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on IRWD. Craig Hallum decreased their price objective on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. JMP Securities cut their target price on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $8.60.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

NASDAQ:IRWD opened at $1.49 on Thursday. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $1.34 and a fifty-two week high of $9.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $238.44 million, a P/E ratio of -49.67 and a beta of 0.37. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.61.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.08). Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 0.96% and a negative net margin of 0.65%. The company had revenue of $90.55 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.85 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals will post 0.1 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Thomas A. Mccourt sold 139,064 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total transaction of $244,752.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,160,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,042,715.84. The trade was a 10.70 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CMO Michael Shetzline sold 41,269 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total transaction of $72,633.44. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 554,007 shares in the company, valued at approximately $975,052.32. The trade was a 6.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 192,381 shares of company stock valued at $338,591 in the last 90 days. 12.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,730,771 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $51,967,000 after acquiring an additional 450,949 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,919,865 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,870,000 after acquiring an additional 677,024 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 23.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,904,271 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,846,000 after acquiring an additional 364,841 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 25.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 169,681 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $699,000 after acquiring an additional 34,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter worth approximately $893,000.

About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a healthcare company, focuses on the development and commercialization of gastrointestinal (GI) products. It markets linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase type-C (GC-C) agonist for the treatment of adults suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation under the LINZESS name in the United States, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and China, as well as under the CONSTELLA name in the Canada and European countries.