Actuant Corporation (ATU) and 2 Other Battered Companies Receive a Vote of Confidence from Insiders

CymaBay Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CBAY) had one of its most highly-informed and influential executives purchase two sizable blocks of shares earlier this week. Sujal Shah, Chief Financial Officer since December 2013, bought 22,000 shares on Monday and 33,000 shares on Tuesday at a price of $1.39 per share. This was the first time Mr. Shah bought shares of CymaBay, and he currently owns a total of 75,000 shares. Retail investors should pay close attention to this kind of insider buying activity, considering that the CFO could have initiated a stake in 2014 or 2015, but did not buy shares until this week.

CymaBay Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops therapies for the treatment of metabolic diseases with high unmet medical needs, which include serious rare and orphan disorders. The company has two main clinical development candidates at the moment, MBX-8025 and arhalofenate, so let’s take a thorough look at each of these candidates. MBX-8025 is being developed for the treatment of various orphan and liver diseases. Earlier this year, the company announced data from a Phase 2 clinical study that evaluated MBX-8025 in 13 patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), which showed that only five patients experienced a meaningful decrease in low density lipoprotein (LDL-C). Therefore, CymaBay intends to provide additional proof-of-concept data before determining whether to continue the advancement of this drug for the treatment of patients with HoFH. In November, the company started a separate Phase 2 study of this candidate in patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), which is anticipated to be completed by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the company’s second candidate, arhalofenate, is being developed for the treatment of gout. This candidate has been studied in five Phase 2 clinical trials, which consistently demonstrated the drug’s ability to reduce gout flares and reduce uric acid. CymaBay has already completed end-of-Phase 2 discussions with the FDA, but the company plans to partner this drug before advancing into Phase 3 development. Shares of CymaBay have lost 77% in the past 12 months, which makes it economically unfeasible for the company to raise additional equity for advancement of its development candidates. There were seven hedge funds in our system with stakes in the company at the end of December, with them having amassed nearly 21% of its outstanding shares. Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management L.P. owns 1.04 million shares of CymaBay Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:CBAY) as of December 31.