Traders Buy High Volume of Iovance Biotherapeutics Call Options (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 53,902 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 956% compared to the average volume of 5,106 call options.

Institutional Trading of Iovance Biotherapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IOVA. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,414,807 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $17,870,000 after acquiring an additional 166,231 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 580,245 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $4,294,000 after purchasing an additional 4,401 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 203,241 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $1,504,000 after purchasing an additional 13,774 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,534,340 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $203,754,000 after buying an additional 220,373 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 104.6% in the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 31,514 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $233,000 after acquiring an additional 16,113 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.03% of the company's stock.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Stock Down 17.1%

IOVA stock traded down $0.68 during trading on Thursday, hitting $3.29. The company had a trading volume of 43,368,022 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,084,934. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.53. Iovance Biotherapeutics has a 12 month low of $1.64 and a 12 month high of $12.51. The stock has a market cap of $1.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.65 and a beta of 0.85.

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $49.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $83.40 million. Iovance Biotherapeutics had a negative net margin of 176.49% and a negative return on equity of 49.71%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6795.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.42) EPS. Equities analysts expect that Iovance Biotherapeutics will post -1.24 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics from $5.00 to $4.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 12th. Baird R W lowered shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a report on Friday, May 9th. Chardan Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $30.00 to $10.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Iovance Biotherapeutics currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $12.22.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc, a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.