Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock investors purchased 23,866 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 44% compared to the average volume of 16,524 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Iovance Biotherapeutics

In other Iovance Biotherapeutics news, Director Merrill A. Mcpeak purchased 250,000 shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.15 per share, for a total transaction of $2,287,500.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 320,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,929,372.50. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 10.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Iovance Biotherapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,812,820 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $185,468,000 after buying an additional 669,350 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 13.8% during the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 5,036,479 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $22,916,000 after purchasing an additional 609,738 shares in the last quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC raised its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 11.4% during the third quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC now owns 3,287,397 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $14,958,000 after purchasing an additional 337,279 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 41.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,643,155 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $12,026,000 after purchasing an additional 772,905 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,747,023 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $14,203,000 after purchasing an additional 54,490 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on IOVA shares. StockNews.com raised Iovance Biotherapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Barclays raised their target price on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. JMP Securities lifted their price objective on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $18.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Iovance Biotherapeutics from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Iovance Biotherapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.64.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Trading Up 1.8 %

Iovance Biotherapeutics stock opened at $13.88 on Tuesday. Iovance Biotherapeutics has a twelve month low of $3.21 and a twelve month high of $18.33. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $13.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.38 and a beta of 0.66.

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $0.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.64) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Iovance Biotherapeutics will post -1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

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.