Precigen Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:PGEN)

Precigen, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGEN) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors bought 8,846 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 363% compared to the average daily volume of 1,911 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Precigen news, Director Randal J. Kirk sold 4,772,781 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.30, for a total transaction of $15,750,177.30. Following the sale, the director owned 302,213 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $997,302.90. This trade represents a 94.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Donald P. Lehr sold 29,131 shares of Precigen stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.36, for a total value of $127,011.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 755,461 shares in the company, valued at $3,293,809.96. This represents a 3.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 5,005,749 shares of company stock valued at $16,765,918 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 41.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Precigen

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PGEN. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Precigen by 102.6% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 10,714 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 5,426 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Precigen by 61.0% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 90,143 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 34,137 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Precigen during the first quarter valued at about $1,531,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Precigen in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of Precigen by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 374,514 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,449,000 after purchasing an additional 3,250 shares during the last quarter. 33.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Precigen Stock Up 9.2%

Shares of PGEN stock traded up $0.45 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $5.26. 2,797,453 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,392,406. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $4.19 and its 200-day moving average is $4.11. The company has a market cap of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.46 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 4.82, a quick ratio of 4.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.62. Precigen has a fifty-two week low of $1.39 and a fifty-two week high of $5.47.

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $23.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.81 million. Precigen had a positive return on equity of 717.50% and a negative net margin of 646.99%. Analysts predict that Precigen will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PGEN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Precigen in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Citizens Jmp increased their price target on shares of Precigen from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Precigen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, HC Wainwright raised their price target on shares of Precigen from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.50.

About Precigen

Precigen, Inc (NASDAQ: PGEN) is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of genetic medicines. The company leverages proprietary gene and cell therapy platforms to design targeted therapies for oncology, infectious diseases and rare conditions. Precigen’s approach combines synthetic biology, immuno-oncology and microbiome engineering to create precision treatments intended to enhance efficacy while minimizing off-target effects.

The centerpiece of Precigen’s technology is its OmniCAR platform, which enables the rapid generation of adaptable chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell products.