Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on SELLAS Life Sciences Group (NASDAQ:SLS)

Key Points

• Unusually heavy call option activity hit SELLAS Life Sciences Group, with traders buying 105,817 call options on Monday — about 242% above its normal volume.
• The stock fell to $12.46 on the day, with a market cap of $2.45 billion; it remains well above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, but below its 52-week high of $15.88.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: two analysts rate SLS a Buy, one rates it a Sell, and MarketBeat shows an overall Hold with a consensus target price of $10.00.

SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLS - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 105,817 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 242% compared to the typical volume of 30,935 call options.

SELLAS Life Sciences Group Price Performance

SLS traded down $0.30 on Monday, hitting $12.46. The company had a trading volume of 3,336,828 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,584,046. SELLAS Life Sciences Group has a 52-week low of $1.39 and a 52-week high of $15.88. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $8.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $6.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -54.20 and a beta of 2.42.

SELLAS Life Sciences Group (NASDAQ:SLS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.01.

Institutional Trading of SELLAS Life Sciences Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SLS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in SELLAS Life Sciences Group by 2.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,839,905 shares of the company's stock worth $11,012,000 after acquiring an additional 185,106 shares in the last quarter. Anson Funds Management LP increased its stake in shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group by 2,093.8% during the third quarter. Anson Funds Management LP now owns 6,032,938 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,713,000 after purchasing an additional 5,757,938 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group by 35.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,077,337 shares of the company's stock valued at $11,604,000 after purchasing an additional 812,953 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group by 23,550.0% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,715,489 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,947,000 after purchasing an additional 2,704,007 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group by 60.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,188,171 shares of the company's stock worth $8,249,000 after purchasing an additional 827,257 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 17.38% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on SLS shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Alliance Global Partners reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of SELLAS Life Sciences Group in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, SELLAS Life Sciences Group currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $10.00.

SELLAS Life Sciences Group Company Profile

SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of active cellular immunotherapies for cancer. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, SELLAS specializes in targeting the Wilms' tumor 1 (WT1) antigen, a protein commonly overexpressed in a range of hematologic and solid tumors. Since its founding, the company has built a pipeline around the use of peptide-based vaccines designed to train the patient's own immune system to recognize and attack WT1-positive cancer cells.

The company's lead product candidate, galinpepimut-S (GPS), is an investigational multi-peptide vaccine directed against WT1.

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