Van ECK Associates Corp Takes $3.72 Million Position in ImmunityBio, Inc. $IBRX

Van ECK Associates Corp purchased a new position in ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 424,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,716,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in ImmunityBio by 29.4% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 34,083,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,399,000 after purchasing an additional 7,736,819 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in ImmunityBio by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,777,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,899,000 after purchasing an additional 5,122,052 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 45.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,455,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,582,000 after buying an additional 5,139,890 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,920,178 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,684,000 after buying an additional 1,030,113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ImmunityBio by 439.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,152,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,182,000 after buying an additional 5,012,001 shares in the last quarter. 8.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ImmunityBio Stock Performance

Shares of IBRX stock opened at $8.19 on Friday. ImmunityBio, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $1.95 and a fifty-two week high of $12.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.44 and a beta of 0.04. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.88.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.08) by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $51.24 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.70 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ImmunityBio, Inc. will post -0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at ImmunityBio

In other news, Director Cheryl Cohen sold 131,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.50, for a total transaction of $1,246,495.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 125,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,191,167. The trade was a 51.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Barry Simon sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.88, for a total value of $197,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,802,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,085,969.44. The trade was a 0.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 412,410 shares of company stock worth $3,753,442. Company insiders own 66.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on IBRX. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Friday, July 10th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of ImmunityBio in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, ImmunityBio presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.20.

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.