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

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock investors bought 20,884 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 94% compared to the typical daily volume of 10,787 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on IOVA shares. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $32.00 price target on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a report on Friday. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $7.50 to $6.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.75.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 39.4% during the fourth quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 19,442 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $144,000 after acquiring an additional 5,500 shares during the period. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. purchased a new stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $3,353,000. Stempoint Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $7,026,000. Finally, Shay Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $188,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.03% of the company’s stock.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ:IOVA traded down $1.14 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $4.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 31,250,320 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,165,623. Iovance Biotherapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $3.62 and a fifty-two week high of $18.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $6.27 and its 200-day moving average is $8.62. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.74 and a beta of 0.53.

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26). Iovance Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 58.43% and a negative net margin of 451.25%. The company had revenue of $73.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.17 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Iovance Biotherapeutics will post -1.24 EPS for the current year.

About Iovance Biotherapeutics

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.