Incyte Co. (NASDAQ:INCY) Short Interest Up 47.7% in May

Incyte Co. (NASDAQ:INCY - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,470,000 shares, an increase of 47.7% from the April 30th total of 6,410,000 shares. Approximately 5.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.7 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

INCY has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Incyte from $75.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. William Blair downgraded Incyte from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $61.00 price objective on shares of Incyte in a research note on Tuesday. Guggenheim lowered Incyte from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $92.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Incyte from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $72.53.

Incyte Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of INCY stock traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $67.24. 1,712,763 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,235,332. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $61.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.28. Incyte has a 1-year low of $53.56 and a 1-year high of $83.95. The company has a market cap of $13.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 249.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.15. Incyte had a return on equity of 0.05% and a net margin of 0.77%. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.17 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 19.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Incyte will post 4.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Barry P. Flannelly sold 19,807 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.69, for a total transaction of $1,340,735.83. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 33,567 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,272,150.23. This represents a 37.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 17.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Incyte

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Incyte by 2.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,997,823 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $1,210,868,000 after acquiring an additional 417,346 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Incyte by 92.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,736,169 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $405,787,000 after acquiring an additional 3,233,356 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Incyte by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,040,086 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $278,346,000 after acquiring an additional 103,910 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Incyte by 4.9% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 3,637,974 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $220,279,000 after acquiring an additional 170,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Incyte by 4.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,168,750 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock worth $191,868,000 after acquiring an additional 120,543 shares during the last quarter. 96.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Incyte

Incyte Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapeutics for hematology/oncology, and inflammation and autoimmunity areas in the United States and internationally. The company offers JAKAFI (ruxolitinib) for treatment of intermediate or high-risk myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease; MONJUVI (tafasitamab-cxix)/MINJUVI (tafasitamab) for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma; PEMAZYRE (pemigatinib), a fibroblast growth factor receptor kinase inhibitor that act as oncogenic drivers in liquid and solid tumor types; ICLUSIG (ponatinib) to treat chronic myeloid leukemia and Philadelphia-chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia; and ZYNYZ (retifanlimab-dlwr) to treat adults with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced Merkel cell carcinoma, as well as OPZELURA cream for treatment of atopic dermatitis.