Traders Purchase Large Volume of Replimune Group Put Options (NASDAQ:REPL)

Key Points

• Unusual options activity: Traders bought 23,181 put options on Replimune Group, roughly 175% above its average put volume, signaling increased bearish or hedging interest.
• Mixed analyst sentiment: The stock carries a consensus Hold rating with an average price target of $8.12, even as BMO Capital Markets recently upgraded it to Outperform while others maintained Hold or Sell views.
• Company and stock performance: Replimune reported a quarterly loss of ($0.76) EPS, missing expectations, and its shares fell to $9.94 on Monday after trading below the prior session’s level.

Replimune Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:REPL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 23,181 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 175% compared to the average volume of 8,439 put options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Replimune Group from an "underperform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $16.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered shares of Replimune Group from an "overweight" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "sell" rating on shares of Replimune Group in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Leerink Partners reiterated a "market perform" rating and issued a $2.00 target price (down from $11.00) on shares of Replimune Group in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Wedbush lifted their target price on Replimune Group from $6.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $8.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Replimune Group news, insider Christopher Sarchi sold 12,000 shares of Replimune Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.24, for a total value of $110,880.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 180,962 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,672,088.88. The trade was a 6.22% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 5.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Replimune Group

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in REPL. Breakwater Capital Group bought a new stake in Replimune Group in the second quarter valued at about $220,000. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP bought a new position in Replimune Group during the first quarter worth about $921,000. Essential Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Replimune Group by 562,400.0% during the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 5,625 shares of the company's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 5,624 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Replimune Group by 17.7% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 253,449 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,939,000 after purchasing an additional 38,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Readystate Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Replimune Group in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,059,000. 92.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Replimune Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ REPL traded down $1.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $9.94. The stock had a trading volume of 2,828,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,570,143. The company has a market cap of $834.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.94 and a beta of 0.86. Replimune Group has a twelve month low of $1.50 and a twelve month high of $13.24. The business's fifty day moving average is $8.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 4.79 and a quick ratio of 4.79.

Replimune Group (NASDAQ:REPL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, June 29th. The company reported ($0.76) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.66) by ($0.10). As a group, research analysts expect that Replimune Group will post -2.29 EPS for the current year.

Replimune Group Company Profile

Replimune Group, Inc is a clinical‐stage biotechnology company focused on developing next‐generation oncolytic immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors. The company's proprietary “RP” platform leverages genetically engineered herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) vectors armed with immunomodulatory payloads to selectively infect, replicate within and destroy cancer cells, while also stimulating systemic antitumor immune responses.

Replimune's lead candidate, RP1, incorporates GM-CSF and a fusogenic protein to enhance both direct oncolysis and immune activation.

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