ImmunityBio Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:IBRX)

ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors acquired 51,571 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 50% compared to the average volume of 34,323 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at ImmunityBio

In related news, Director Christobel Selecky sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Barry J. Simon sold 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.01, for a total transaction of $900,750.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,850,821 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,238,360.21. This trade represents a 2.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 501,967 shares of company stock valued at $4,466,412 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 69.48% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ImmunityBio

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of IBRX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in ImmunityBio by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,777,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,899,000 after buying an additional 5,122,052 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 45.4% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,455,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,582,000 after acquiring an additional 5,139,890 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in ImmunityBio by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,920,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,684,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,113 shares during the period. Armistice Capital LLC purchased a new position in ImmunityBio during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $20,497,000. Finally, Heights Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in ImmunityBio during the 3rd quarter valued at $16,152,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 8.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on IBRX. D. Boral Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 price target on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Tuesday. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on shares of ImmunityBio from $10.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $12.00 price target (up from $7.00) on shares of ImmunityBio in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.40.

ImmunityBio Price Performance

Shares of ImmunityBio stock traded down $0.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $8.49. The stock had a trading volume of 24,764,249 shares, compared to its average volume of 39,744,219. The business has a fifty day moving average of $7.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.99. ImmunityBio has a fifty-two week low of $1.83 and a fifty-two week high of $12.43. The firm has a market cap of $8.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.32 and a beta of -0.03.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $38.29 million during the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that ImmunityBio will post -0.92 earnings per share for the current year.

ImmunityBio Company Profile

ImmunityBio, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of novel immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases. The company’s research platform centers on harnessing the power of the human immune system—through engineered T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, cytokine superagonists and viral-vectored vaccines—to target and eliminate diseased cells across a range of indications.

Among its lead assets is Anktiva (formerly known as N-803), an interleukin-15 superagonist designed to stimulate NK and T cell activity.