Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) Short Interest Up 34.9% in March

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,250,000 shares, an increase of 34.9% from the February 28th total of 12,050,000 shares. Approximately 10.5% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Thomas A. Mccourt sold 139,064 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total transaction of $244,752.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,160,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,042,715.84. This represents a 10.70 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Michael Shetzline sold 41,269 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.76, for a total transaction of $72,633.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 554,007 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $975,052.32. This trade represents a 6.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 192,381 shares of company stock worth $338,591. 12.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,730,771 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $51,967,000 after buying an additional 450,949 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 7.3% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 23.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,904,271 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $7,846,000 after acquiring an additional 364,841 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 25.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 169,681 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $699,000 after acquiring an additional 34,089 shares during the period. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in the third quarter valued at approximately $893,000.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals stock traded down $0.02 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $1.34. 1,832,063 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,409,529. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $1.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.31. The firm has a market cap of $214.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -44.67 and a beta of 0.30. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $1.26 and a 52 week high of $8.45.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $90.55 million for 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%. Research analysts forecast that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IRWD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Craig Hallum reduced 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. StockNews.com upgraded Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 29th. Finally, JMP Securities lowered their price target 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $8.60.

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.