Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY)

Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ:INCY) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors bought 7,551 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 1,314% compared to the typical volume of 534 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on INCY. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Incyte from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $120.00 to $94.00 in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Incyte in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Incyte from $103.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Incyte from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $123.00 target price on shares of Incyte in a report on Tuesday, June 9th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.85.

Insider Activity at Incyte

In other news, insider Pablo J. Cagnoni sold 18,667 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.50, for a total transaction of $1,801,365.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 262,692 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,349,778. This represents a 6.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 16.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Incyte

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Incyte by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,993,012 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $491,500,000 after acquiring an additional 506,842 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Incyte by 13.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,473,781 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $343,105,000 after purchasing an additional 405,611 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Incyte by 13.7% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,103,946 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $263,246,000 after purchasing an additional 373,298 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Incyte by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,663,823 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $263,106,000 after buying an additional 23,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in Incyte by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 2,480,793 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $245,028,000 after buying an additional 161,405 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.97% of the company’s stock.

Incyte Stock Up 1.4%

INCY traded up $1.57 during trading on Thursday, reaching $115.38. 1,046,020 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,766,814. The stock has a market cap of $23.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. Incyte has a fifty-two week low of $66.85 and a fifty-two week high of $118.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 3.68 and a quick ratio of 3.60. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $100.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.58.

Incyte (NASDAQ:INCY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.43. Incyte had a return on equity of 26.66% and a net margin of 26.71%.The firm had revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.16 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Incyte will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

About Incyte

Incyte Corporation is a Wilmington, Delaware–based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies in oncology and inflammation. Since its founding in 2002, Incyte has grown from a small research organization into a global enterprise, advancing a portfolio of internally developed and partnered assets. The company’s research and development efforts center on small-molecule drugs and biologics that modulate critical signaling pathways implicated in cancer, autoimmune disorders and rare diseases.

The company’s flagship product is Jakafi® (ruxolitinib), a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor approved for the treatment of myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera.