Cassava Sciences Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:SAVA)

Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:SAVA) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 7,933 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 67% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,741 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cassava Sciences

In other news, CEO Richard Barry acquired 73,385 shares of Cassava Sciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $2.75 per share, with a total value of $201,808.75. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 788,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,167,165. The trade was a 10.27% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 12.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Cassava Sciences in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $120,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cassava Sciences by 77.9% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 496,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $744,000 after purchasing an additional 217,404 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Cassava Sciences in the first quarter worth $178,000. Ground Swell Capital LLC acquired a new position in Cassava Sciences during the second quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in Cassava Sciences in the second quarter valued at $34,000. 38.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on SAVA. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Cassava Sciences in a report on Friday, December 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cassava Sciences from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, February 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $2.00.

Cassava Sciences Stock Performance

NASDAQ SAVA opened at $2.18 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $105.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.00 and a beta of -0.63. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.68. Cassava Sciences has a 52-week low of $1.15 and a 52-week high of $4.98.

Cassava Sciences (NASDAQ:SAVA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.05. On average, analysts predict that Cassava Sciences will post -3.97 EPS for the current year.

Cassava Sciences Company Profile

Cassava Sciences, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies and diagnostics for Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company was originally founded as Pain Therapeutics in 1998 and rebranded to Cassava Sciences in 2017. Cassava’s research program centers on small molecules designed to address underlying mechanisms of neurodegeneration rather than solely targeting amyloid plaques or tau tangles.

The company’s lead drug candidate, simufilam (formerly PTI-125), is a proprietary small molecule that aims to restore normal shape and function to the scaffolding protein filamin A, which has been implicated in impaired neuronal signaling and inflammation in Alzheimer’s patients.