Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD)

MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors acquired 4,972 call options on the company. Thisrepresentsanincreaseofapproximately262% compared to the typical volume of 1,373 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on MNKD shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on MannKind from $7.00 to $8.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on MannKind from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut MannKind from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have assigned a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $9.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at MannKind

In other news, Director Steven B. Binder sold 75,367 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.94, for a total value of $296,945.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 830,508 shares in the company, valued at $3,272,201.52. This trade represents a 8.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On MannKind

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in MannKind by 40.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,958,219 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $19,022,000 after buying an additional 855,261 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of MannKind by 441.5% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 30,693 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $197,000 after buying an additional 25,025 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of MannKind by 49.7% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 31,327 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $203,000 after buying an additional 10,407 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of MannKind by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 175,009 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,126,000 after purchasing an additional 18,806 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of MannKind by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,777,784 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $17,861,000 after purchasing an additional 207,792 shares during the last quarter. 49.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

MannKind Trading Up 25.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:MNKD opened at $5.74 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.19 and a beta of 1.02. MannKind has a 12-month low of $3.38 and a 12-month high of $7.63. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $3.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.43.

MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $76.53 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $77.82 million. MannKind had a negative return on equity of 32.60% and a net margin of 10.87%.The company’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that MannKind will post 0.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

MannKind Company Profile

MannKind Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of inhaled therapeutic products for endocrine and orphan lung diseases in the United States. It offers Afrezza, an inhaled insulin used to improve glycemic control in adults with diabetes, and the V-Go wearable insulin delivery device, which provides continuous subcutaneous infusion of insulin in adults.