Short Interest in Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) Decreases By 12.9%

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR - Get Free Report) saw a large decrease in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,770,000 shares, a decrease of 12.9% from the December 15th total of 3,180,000 shares. Currently, 3.7% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 309,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.0 days.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

AVIR traded up $0.04 on Friday, hitting $3.37. The company had a trading volume of 337,674 shares, compared to its average volume of 471,099. The stock has a market capitalization of $284.63 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.63 and a beta of 0.20. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $3.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.46. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a 12-month low of $2.75 and a 12-month high of $4.60.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.50) by $0.13. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.40) EPS. Analysts forecast that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Franklin M. Berger sold 359,606 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.85, for a total value of $1,024,877.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 451,897 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,287,906.45. The trade was a 44.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 17.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Atea Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AVIR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 106.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,244 shares of the company's stock valued at $319,000 after buying an additional 49,028 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals during the third quarter valued at about $99,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals by 74.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 177,077 shares of the company's stock valued at $593,000 after purchasing an additional 75,624 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management acquired a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $80,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Atea Pharmaceuticals by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,733,486 shares of the company's stock worth $5,807,000 after purchasing an additional 11,566 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.67% of the company's stock.

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes antiviral therapeutics for patients with viral infections. Its lead product candidate is AT-527, an oral antiviral candidate that is in Phase 3 SUNRISE-3 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.

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