Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the ten research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $25.00.

XNCR has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Xencor in a research note on Monday, November 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $29.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on Xencor from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Xencor in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Xencor from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th.

Xencor Stock Performance

NASDAQ XNCR opened at $11.87 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 6.25 and a quick ratio of 6.25. The company has a market cap of $870.55 million, a P/E ratio of -9.57 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $13.03. Xencor has a 1-year low of $6.92 and a 1-year high of $18.69.

Xencor (NASDAQ:XNCR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by $0.55. Xencor had a negative net margin of 73.20% and a negative return on equity of 14.58%. The business had revenue of $28.24 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.62) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 46.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Xencor will post -3.68 EPS for the current year.

Xencor News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Xencor this week:

• Negative Sentiment: Xencor and Genentech have agreed to end their protein-therapeutics collaboration. This removes a strategic partner that could have provided development resources, milestone and/or royalty payments tied to the collaboration and could delay or change the path-to-market for affected programs; however, termination may return rights to Xencor and let the company seek new partners or advance programs independently. Xencor, Genentech to End Protein Therapeutics Collaboration
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple insider sales by senior Xencor executives were disclosed this week: CEO Bassil Dahiyat sold 14,870 shares on March 5 and 6,606 shares on March 6 (total 21,476 shares), SVP Celia Eckert sold 5,011 shares across March 5–6, and VP John Desjarlais sold 6,620 shares across March 5–6. Aggregate proceeds reported are in the low six-figure range per trade. These clustered sales by top executives can be read negatively by the market (profit-taking or reduced insider conviction), unless part of pre-planned 10b5‑1 arrangements (no such plan was disclosed in these notices). Relevant SEC filings: CEO Form 4(s) SVP Form 4(s) VP Form 4(s)

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Bassil I. Dahiyat sold 114,377 shares of Xencor stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.71, for a total value of $1,796,862.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 466,635 shares in the company, valued at $7,330,835.85. The trade was a 19.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Celia Eckert sold 3,244 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.25, for a total transaction of $36,495.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 78,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $885,206.25. This represents a 3.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 231,764 shares of company stock worth $3,450,009 over the last 90 days. 5.23% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Xencor

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Walleye Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xencor in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,955,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Xencor by 153.2% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 29,371 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $231,000 after purchasing an additional 17,773 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its holdings in Xencor by 3,150.0% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 363,153 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,854,000 after purchasing an additional 351,979 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Xencor in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,062,000. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its holdings in Xencor by 1.4% during the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 10,675,022 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $125,218,000 after purchasing an additional 147,700 shares in the last quarter.

Xencor Company Profile

Xencor, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of engineered protein therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, cancer and neurological disorders. The company applies its proprietary XmAb® platform to manipulate antibody structure and function, creating molecules with enhanced immune engagement and extended half-life. Xencor’s research programs span a range of therapeutic modalities, including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies and cytokine-based fusion proteins.

The XmAb® platform enables precise modification of the Fc region to augment key properties such as receptor binding, effector function and pharmacokinetics.