Investors Purchase High Volume of Altimmune Call Options (NASDAQ:ALT)

Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors bought 11,978 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 103% compared to the average daily volume of 5,887 call options.

Institutional Trading of Altimmune

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Altimmune in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Altimmune by 108.5% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 10,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 5,253 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Altimmune in the second quarter valued at $40,000. Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Altimmune in the second quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Altimmune during the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.05% of the company’s stock.

Altimmune Trading Up 6.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:ALT opened at $5.10 on Tuesday. Altimmune has a fifty-two week low of $2.90 and a fifty-two week high of $10.88. The company has a quick ratio of 20.44, a current ratio of 20.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market cap of $532.14 million, a PE ratio of -4.32 and a beta of 0.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $4.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.46.

Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.21) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.29) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $0.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.00 million. Altimmune had a negative return on equity of 62.63% and a negative net margin of 438,730.03%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Altimmune will post -1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley dropped their price objective on shares of Altimmune from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Altimmune from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Citizens Jmp decreased their price objective on shares of Altimmune from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 target price on shares of Altimmune in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Altimmune in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.83.

About Altimmune

Altimmune, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The company's lead product candidate, pemvidutide, a GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist that is in Phase 2 trial for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.