Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totaling 3,070,296 shares, a drop of 61.1% from the September 30th total of 7,886,499 shares. Approximately 4.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 287,224 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 10.7 days.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Trading Down 4.6%

Shares of NASDAQ AVIR traded down $0.20 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $4.11. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 349,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 296,872. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $329.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.98 and a beta of 0.39. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a fifty-two week low of $2.87 and a fifty-two week high of $6.45.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.41) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.56) by $0.15. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -1.99 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AVIR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Atea Pharmaceuticals from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Atea Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.00.

Institutional Trading of Atea Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AVIR. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at $86,000. Spark Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $75,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $77,000. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter worth $78,000. Institutional investors own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing oral antiviral therapies for serious infectious diseases. The company’s research platform is based on nucleotide and nucleoside prodrug technologies designed to target viral replication.

Atea’s lead product candidate is bemnifosbuvir, formerly known as AT-527, an orally administered antiviral that has been evaluated for the treatment of COVID-19. The company has also investigated bemnifosbuvir and related antiviral approaches for other viral infections, including hepatitis C.