Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRWD) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $4.9250.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on IRWD shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup raised shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised their target price on Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ironwood Pharmaceuticals news, Director Alexander J. Denner sold 6,730,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.05, for a total transaction of $20,528,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 9,188,635 shares in the company, valued at $28,025,336.75. This trade represents a 42.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 12.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Armistice Capital LLC raised its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 17.9% in the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 16,150,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $11,583,000 after acquiring an additional 2,450,000 shares in the last quarter. Range Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals during the 4th quarter worth $1,436,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH grew its holdings in Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 26.0% during the 2nd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 526,775 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $378,000 after acquiring an additional 108,822 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming increased its position in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals by 76.2% in the 3rd quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 362,407 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 156,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

IRWD stock opened at $3.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $577.23 million, a P/E ratio of 27.23 and a beta of 0.17. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals has a 1 year low of $0.53 and a 1 year high of $5.78. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.19.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:IRWD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.03). Ironwood Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 13.72% and a net margin of 8.11%.The company had revenue of $47.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $86.10 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ironwood Pharmaceuticals will post 0.1 EPS for the current year.

About Ironwood Pharmaceuticals

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc is a commercial?stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of medicines for gastrointestinal (GI) disorders. The company’s flagship product is linaclotide, marketed under the brand name LINZESS in the United States for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) and chronic idiopathic constipation (CIC). Through a strategic collaboration with Allergan (now part of AbbVie), Ironwood also commercializes linaclotide in select ex-U.S.