Atea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVIR) Shares Shorted: Short Interest Down 61.1% in October

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AVIR. Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new stake in Atea Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth about $78,000. Spark Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $77,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals by 262.7% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 206,785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $962,000 after purchasing an additional 149,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Atea Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $380,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

Atea Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

AVIR stock traded down $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $4.10. 99,937 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 384,648. Atea Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $2.87 and a one year high of $6.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $5.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $329.18 million, a PE ratio of -1.98 and a beta of 0.39.

Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AVIR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.41) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.56) by $0.15. On average, equities analysts expect that Atea Pharmaceuticals will post -1.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About Atea Pharmaceuticals

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.