Akebia Shares Spike Sharply Higher As Traders Get Word Of Earlier $90 Price Target By Morgan Stanley

Shares of Akebia Therapeutics AKBA are seeing a somewhat surprising sharp spike higher Monday afternoon following a CNBC mention of an earlier call from Morgan Stanley. CNBC was merely only highlighting earlier new coverage (the note on AKBA was out very early Monday morning, around 1AM EDT) by a Morgan Stanley analyst. The firm initiated coverage on the stock with an Overweight rating and $90 price target. Morgan Stanley was not the only firm initiating coverage on Akebia shares Monday morning. Credit Suisse, UBS and Nomura each set their equivalent of a buy rating on the stock. Credit Suisse set a $25 price target on Akebia, UBS set a $28 target, and Nomura set a $39 target. The stock was trading up more than 5 percent prior to the CNBC mention; shares have since rallied another 20 or so percent, and are now up 28.5 percent for the session. With Akebia shares last traded under $22, the new Morgan Stanley price target implies potential upside of more than 300 percent.