Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) Short Interest Down 30.8% in March

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,250,000 shares, a drop of 30.8% from the March 15th total of 16,250,000 shares. Approximately 7.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ironwood Pharmaceuticals news, CEO Thomas A. Mccourt sold 139,064 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total value of $244,752.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,160,634 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,042,715.84. This trade represents a 10.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available 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 value of $72,633.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 554,007 shares in the company, valued at $975,052.32. This represents a 6.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 192,381 shares of company stock worth $338,591. Insiders own 12.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,730,771 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $51,967,000 after buying an additional 450,949 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% during 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. Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 102.7% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 323,638 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,333,000 after purchasing an additional 164,006 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,983,240 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $8,786,000 after purchasing an additional 78,969 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ IRWD traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $0.73. 3,326,562 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,563,595. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.01. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $0.59 and a 1 year high of $8.45. The company has a market cap of $117.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.17 and a beta of 0.30.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Craig Hallum cut Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $0.70 price target (down from $8.00) on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. JMP Securities lowered their price objective on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Leerink Partners reduced their target price on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $3.00 to $1.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $4.78.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

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.