Chart of the Day: Ironwood Pharma - Gastrointestinal Products

 The Chart of the Day belongs to the gastrointestinal pharmaceutical products company Ironwood Pharmaceutical (IRWD)    I found the stock by using Barchart's powerful screening functions to find stocks with the highest technical buy signals, highest Weighted Alpha, superior current momentum and having a Trend Seeker buy signal then used the Flipchart  feature to review the charts for consistent price appreciation. Since the Trend Seeker signaled a buy on 11/17 the stock gained 57.16%.

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a healthcare company, focuses on the development and commercialization of gastrointestinal (GI) products. It markets linaclotide, a guanylate cyclase type-C (GC-C) agonist for the treatment of adults suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation or chronic idiopathic constipation under the LINZESS name in the United States, Mexico, Japan, and China, as well as under the CONSTELLA name in the Canada and European countries. The company is also developing IW-3300, a GC-C agonist for the treatment of visceral pain conditions, including interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and endometriosis; and CNP-104, an immune nanoparticle for the treatment of primary biliary cholangitis. The company has strategic partnerships with AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca AB, and Astellas Pharma Inc. for the development and commercialization of linaclotide. The company was formerly known as Microbia, Inc. and changed its name to Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in April 2008. Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Barchart's Opinion Trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 20 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com website when you read this report.

Barchart Technical Indicators:

• 100% technical buy signals
• 53.80+ Weighted Alpha
• 37.60% gain in the last year
• Trend Seeker buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
• 17 new highs and up 26.50% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 81.92%
• Technical support level at $14.97
• Recently traded at $15.37 with 50 day moving average of $12.32

Fundamental Factors:

• Market Cap $2.40 billion
• P/E 16.13
• Wall Street projects Revenue will grow 7.40% this year and another 4.50% next year
• Earnings are estimated to decrease 718.80% this year, increase an additional 114.80% next year and continue to compound at an annual rate of 72.58% for the next 5 years

Analysts and Investor Sentiment -- I don't buy stocks because everyone else is buying but I do realize that if major firms and investors are dumping a stock it's hard to make money swimming against the tide:

• Wall Street analysts issued 3 strong buy, 2 buy, 5 hold  and 1 under perform recommendations this month
• Analysts price targets are $15 to 22 - with a consensus of $20 - 29% above its recent price
• The individual investors following the stock on Motley Fool voted 50 to 8 for the stock to beat the market with the most experienced investors voting 9 to 1 for the same result
• Value Line gives the stock its average rating of 3 but a price target of $10 for a 30% loss
• CFRAs MarketScope has a buy rating
• 6,030 investors monitor the stock on Seeking Alpha

Additional disclosure: The Barchart Chart of the Day highlights stocks that are experiencing exceptional current price appreciation. They are not intended to be buy recommendations as these stocks are extremely volatile and speculative. Should you decide to add one of these stocks to your investment portfolio it is highly suggested you follow a predetermined diversification and moving stop loss discipline that is consistent with your personal investment risk tolerance and reevaluate your stop losses at least on a weekly basis.