Traders Purchase High Volume of Inovio Pharmaceuticals Call Options (NASDAQ:INO)

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders purchased 11,964 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 333% compared to the typical volume of 2,763 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

INO has been the topic of several research reports. HC Wainwright lowered their price objective on shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals from $3.00 to $2.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Inovio Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Inovio Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $4.25.

Institutional Trading of Inovio Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in INO. AQR Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the first quarter valued at approximately $120,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Inovio Pharmaceuticals by 39.6% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 20,781 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 5,894 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $234,000. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals by 221.2% in the 2nd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,683 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 27,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals by 1,667.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 65,206 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 61,516 shares during the period. 26.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Inovio Pharmaceuticals stock traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $0.72. The stock had a trading volume of 4,558,439 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,226,138. Inovio Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $0.56 and a 1-year high of $2.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.50 and a beta of 1.52. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $1.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $1.35.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.28) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by $0.02. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Inovio Pharmaceuticals will post -1.03 EPS for the current year.

About Inovio Pharmaceuticals

Inovio Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of DNA-based immunotherapies and vaccines aimed at treating and preventing infectious diseases and cancers. The company leverages proprietary technologies to design synthetic DNA sequences that encode antigens capable of eliciting targeted immune responses. Inovio’s business activities span early research through clinical development, with a primary emphasis on advancing candidates against viral pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, human papillomavirus (HPV), HIV, Ebola, Zika and other emerging threats.

Central to Inovio’s platform is its SynCon® technology, which constructs optimized DNA plasmids for broad antigen coverage, and the Cellectra® electroporation device, designed to enhance cellular uptake and expression of DNA vaccines.