Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX)

ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 15,127 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 242% compared to the average volume of 4,422 call options.

ImmunityBio Stock Up 10.6%

IBRX traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $2.87. The stock had a trading volume of 21,335,958 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,000,526. ImmunityBio has a 1 year low of $1.83 and a 1 year high of $4.27. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $2.41. The stock has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a PE ratio of -6.96 and a beta of 0.03.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $32.06 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.88 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that ImmunityBio will post -0.92 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of ImmunityBio from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, D. Boral Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ImmunityBio

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 26.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,655,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,032,000 after purchasing an additional 5,837,898 shares in the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of ImmunityBio in the second quarter valued at approximately $20,497,000. Heights Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in ImmunityBio during the third quarter valued at approximately $16,152,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in ImmunityBio by 34.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,777,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,254,000 after acquiring an additional 1,487,849 shares during the period. Finally, Woodline Partners LP lifted its stake in ImmunityBio by 53.7% in the 3rd quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 5,297,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,032,000 after purchasing an additional 1,851,854 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 8.58% of the company’s stock.

ImmunityBio Company Profile

ImmunityBio, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of novel immunotherapies for cancer and infectious diseases. The company’s research platform centers on harnessing the power of the human immune system—through engineered T cells, natural killer (NK) cells, cytokine superagonists and viral-vectored vaccines—to target and eliminate diseased cells across a range of indications.

Among its lead assets is Anktiva (formerly known as N-803), an interleukin-15 superagonist designed to stimulate NK and T cell activity.