Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX)

ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 51,571 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 50% compared to the typical volume of 34,323 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Barry J. Simon sold 165,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.25, for a total value of $1,691,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,925,821 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,989,665.25. This represents a 5.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Christobel Selecky sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.00, for a total value of $250,000.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 501,967 shares of company stock worth $4,466,412. 69.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ImmunityBio

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in ImmunityBio by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,777,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,899,000 after acquiring an additional 5,122,052 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in ImmunityBio by 45.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,455,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,582,000 after purchasing an additional 5,139,890 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of ImmunityBio by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,920,178 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,684,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030,113 shares during the period. Armistice Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ImmunityBio in the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,497,000. Finally, Heights Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of ImmunityBio in the third quarter valued at about $16,152,000. Institutional investors own 8.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IBRX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Monday, December 29th. BTIG Research initiated coverage on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $13.00 price objective on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of ImmunityBio from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of ImmunityBio from $10.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.40.

ImmunityBio Price Performance

NASDAQ:IBRX opened at $8.47 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.04. ImmunityBio has a fifty-two week low of $1.83 and a fifty-two week high of $12.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a PE ratio of -22.29 and a beta of -0.03.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, March 2nd. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $38.29 million for the quarter. On average, research analysts expect that ImmunityBio will post -0.92 earnings per share for the current year.

About ImmunityBio

ImmunityBio, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of novel immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases. The company’s research platform centers on harnessing the power of the human immune system—through engineered T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, cytokine superagonists and viral-vectored vaccines—to target and eliminate diseased cells across a range of indications.

Among its lead assets is Anktiva (formerly known as N-803), an interleukin-15 superagonist designed to stimulate NK and T cell activity.