aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR) Stock Short Interest Falls 97.1%

aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 30th, there was short interest totaling 293,448 shares, a decrease of 97.1% from the October 15th total of 10,273,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 87,073 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days. Currently, 12.6% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ATYR. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of aTyr Pharma from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on aTyr Pharma from $1.00 to $4.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on aTyr Pharma to $6.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Wall Street Zen upgraded aTyr Pharma to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 31st. Finally, Freedom Broker lowered aTyr Pharma from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.00.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On aTyr Pharma

A hedge fund recently bought a new position in aTyr Pharma stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 40,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.72% of the company’s stock.

aTyr Pharma Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ:ATYR traded down $0.02 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $7.56. The stock had a trading volume of 113,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 108,835. aTyr Pharma has a one year low of $4.07 and a one year high of $44.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.37.

aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:ATYR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported ($7.43) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($4.00) by ($3.43). The firm had revenue of $235.23 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that aTyr Pharma will post -22.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About aTyr Pharma

aTyr Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATYR) is a biotechnology company focused on developing therapies that modulate immune system activity. The company’s research is based on a class of naturally occurring proteins known as extracellular tRNA synthetases, which can influence biological processes involved in inflammation, tissue repair and immune regulation. aTyr’s lead product candidate is efzofitimod, an engineered protein therapeutic designed to target neuropilin-2 and regulate immune responses in the lungs.