Short Interest in Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYEL) Increases By 71.6%

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYEL - Get Free Report) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,710,000 shares, a growth of 71.6% from the April 30th total of 5,660,000 shares. Currently, 8.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 770,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 12.6 days.

Lyell Immunopharma Stock Performance

Shares of Lyell Immunopharma stock traded down $0.77 during trading on Monday, reaching $7.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 312,077 shares, compared to its average volume of 52,877. Lyell Immunopharma has a one year low of $7.80 and a one year high of $56.00. The firm has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.09 and a beta of -0.25. The business's fifty day moving average price is $0.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $0.60.

Lyell Immunopharma (NASDAQ:LYEL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.18) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by $0.01. Lyell Immunopharma had a negative return on equity of 34.64% and a negative net margin of 323,792.09%. The company had revenue of $0.01 million for the quarter. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Lyell Immunopharma will post -0.78 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Lyell Immunopharma news, CEO Lynn Seely acquired 175,000 shares of Lyell Immunopharma stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $0.61 per share, for a total transaction of $106,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 712,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $434,625. This represents a 32.56% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Charles W. Newton acquired 200,000 shares of Lyell Immunopharma stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $0.56 per share, with a total value of $112,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 200,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $112,000. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders bought 768,640 shares of company stock worth $449,508. 25.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Lyell Immunopharma

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LYEL. Decheng Capital LLC acquired a new position in Lyell Immunopharma in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,622,000. Foresite Capital Management V LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lyell Immunopharma in the fourth quarter valued at $5,205,000. venBio Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Lyell Immunopharma in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,545,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Lyell Immunopharma by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,137,264 shares of the company's stock worth $2,648,000 after buying an additional 117,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Almitas Capital LLC grew its holdings in Lyell Immunopharma by 136.3% during the 1st quarter. Almitas Capital LLC now owns 2,482,606 shares of the company's stock worth $1,336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,432,086 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.05% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, HC Wainwright reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $1.00 target price on shares of Lyell Immunopharma in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th.

About Lyell Immunopharma

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc, a clinical-stage cell therapy company, develops T cell reprogramming technologies for patients with solid tumors. The company develops therapies using an ex vivo genetic reprogramming technologies, such as c Jun overexpression and NR4A3 gene knockout, to endow resistance to T cell exhaustion; and an ex vivo epigenetic reprogramming technologies, including Epi R to generate population of T cells with durable stemness, and Stim R, a proprietary synthetic cell mimetic.