Iovance Biotherapeutics Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders purchased 17,736 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 71% compared to the typical volume of 10,367 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IOVA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $32.00 price target on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a report on Thursday, October 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered Iovance Biotherapeutics from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $19.00 to $10.00 in a research note on Monday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Ryan D. Maynard sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.06, for a total value of $503,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,500 shares in the company, valued at $75,450. This trade represents a 86.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 12.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Iovance Biotherapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ORG Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics during the second quarter worth about $32,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 1,237.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 5,003 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 4,629 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth about $58,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 754.0% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 8,813 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 7,781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 77.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

IOVA opened at $8.43 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $10.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.66 and a beta of 0.60. Iovance Biotherapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $5.14 and a fifty-two week high of $18.33.

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.28) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $58.56 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.54 million. Iovance Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 58.43% and a negative net margin of 451.25%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.46) EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Iovance Biotherapeutics will post -1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc, a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.