Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX)

ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors bought 6,205 call options on the company. This is an increase of 42% compared to the average volume of 4,357 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ImmunityBio

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 138,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,000 after purchasing an additional 32,334 shares in the last quarter. Altium Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ImmunityBio in the fourth quarter worth about $2,714,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in ImmunityBio by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,328,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,360,000 after buying an additional 425,713 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in ImmunityBio by 71.2% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 92,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,000 after buying an additional 38,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in ImmunityBio by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 396,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,015,000 after acquiring an additional 35,448 shares during the last quarter. 8.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on IBRX shares. D. Boral Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of ImmunityBio in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler upgraded ImmunityBio from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $4.25 to $5.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $8.00 target price on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ImmunityBio has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $12.25.

ImmunityBio Stock Performance

Shares of IBRX stock opened at $2.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.39 billion, a PE ratio of -2.95 and a beta of 0.33. ImmunityBio has a 52-week low of $1.83 and a 52-week high of $7.63.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $16.52 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.50 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ImmunityBio will post -0.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About ImmunityBio

ImmunityBio, Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, engages in developing therapies and vaccines that bolster the natural immune system to defeat cancers and infectious diseases. Its platforms for the development of biologic product candidates include antibody-cytokine fusion proteins; DNA, RNA, and recombinant protein vaccines; and cell therapies.