Weiss Asset Management LP Invests $893,000 in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD)

Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 216,707 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $893,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Armistice Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 44.4% in the 2nd quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 7,800,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $50,856,000 after purchasing an additional 2,400,000 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 26.6% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 11,279,822 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $46,473,000 after purchasing an additional 2,372,183 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 20.7% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,571,898 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,889,000 after buying an additional 1,472,097 shares during the last quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 1,982.8% in the third quarter. Stonepine Capital Management LLC now owns 1,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,120,000 after buying an additional 951,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake 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 buying an additional 677,024 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, September 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $5.00 price objective on the stock. Leerink Partnrs raised Ironwood Pharmaceuticals to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three equities 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.40.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

NASDAQ IRWD opened at $3.43 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $4.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.07. The company has a market capitalization of $548.90 million, a P/E ratio of -114.33 and a beta of 0.41. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has a 1-year low of $3.06 and a 1-year high of $15.70.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $91.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $91.22 million. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 0.65% and a negative return on equity of 0.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.12 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Sravan Kumar Emany sold 11,001 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.08, for a total transaction of $44,884.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 309,572 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,263,053.76. This trade represents a 3.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 12.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.