Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Key Points

• Unusual options activity: Traders bought 23,006 call options on Iovance (IOVA) on Friday, a 213% increase versus the typical volume of 7,340, indicating elevated bullish interest in the stock.
• Mixed analyst backdrop with elevated institutional ownership: Analysts' consensus is a Hold with a $8.88 target (six Buys, four Holds, two Sells) while Barclays raised its target to $11, and institutional investors now own about 77.03% of shares after several firms materially increased stakes.
• Stock fundamentals and trading: Iovance closed at $3.78 on heavy volume (24.17M shares vs. avg 14.85M), has a $1.56B market cap, and despite topping quarterly EPS and revenue estimates remains unprofitable with negative margins and a projected -1.24 EPS for the year.

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 23,006 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 213% compared to the typical volume of 7,340 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on IOVA. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a research report on Monday. Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics from a "market perform" rating to a "market outperform" rating and set a $5.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Iovance Biotherapeutics has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $8.88.

Institutional Trading of Iovance Biotherapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 651.5% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 180,541 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $497,000 after acquiring an additional 156,517 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 187.6% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 50,726 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 33,091 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 658.9% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 47,277 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 41,047 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,251,665 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $3,417,000 after acquiring an additional 306,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 148.4% during the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 522,934 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $1,428,000 after acquiring an additional 312,413 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.03% of the company's stock.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of IOVA stock traded down $0.23 on Friday, reaching $3.78. 24,174,899 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,852,687. The company has a market cap of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.39 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $3.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.75. Iovance Biotherapeutics has a 1 year low of $1.64 and a 1 year high of $5.63.

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.04. The business had revenue of $86.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $81.61 million. Iovance Biotherapeutics had a negative net margin of 148.41% and a negative return on equity of 54.54%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Iovance Biotherapeutics will post -1.24 earnings per share for the current year.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc is a clinical‐stage biotechnology company specializing in the development and commercialization of tumor‐infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors. The company's lead product candidate, lifileucel (formerly LN‐144), is an autologous TIL therapy in late‐stage clinical development for patients with advanced melanoma. Iovance's pipeline also includes next‐generation TIL programs such as LN‐145 for cervical and other human papillomavirus (HPV)‐related cancers, as well as exploratory studies in head and neck, non‐small cell lung, gastric and other solid tumor indications.

Iovance's TIL platform harnesses a patient's own immune system by isolating, expanding and reinfusing tumor‐reactive lymphocytes.

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