Patrick W. Smith Buys 1,077,600 Shares of OncoCyte Co. (NASDAQ:OCX) Stock

OncoCyte Co. (NASDAQ:OCX) major shareholder Patrick W. Smith bought 1,077,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $2.05 per share, with a total value of $2,209,080.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,872,671 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,888,975.55. The trade was a 60.03 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Major shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

OncoCyte Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ OCX opened at $2.51 on Thursday. OncoCyte Co. has a twelve month low of $1.92 and a twelve month high of $3.48. The company’s fifty day moving average is $2.20 and its 200-day moving average is $2.71.

OncoCyte (NASDAQ:OCX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.98) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by ($0.54). OncoCyte had a negative return on equity of 269.32% and a negative net margin of 6,122.29%. The business had revenue of $0.12 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.57) earnings per share. Analysts expect that OncoCyte Co. will post -2.57 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OncoCyte

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of OCX. FNY Investment Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of OncoCyte by 15.1% during the fourth quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 49,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,000 after acquiring an additional 6,481 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in OncoCyte by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,980 shares of the company’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 11,289 shares during the period. Finally, Pura Vida Investments LLC increased its holdings in OncoCyte by 32.1% during the 4th quarter. Pura Vida Investments LLC now owns 654,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,558,000 after purchasing an additional 159,106 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on OCX shares. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $4.25 price objective on shares of OncoCyte in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. StockNews.com began coverage on OncoCyte in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They set a “sell” rating for the company.

OncoCyte Company Profile

OncoCyte Corporation, a precision diagnostics company, focuses on development and commercialization of proprietary tests in the United States and internationally. The company is developing DetermaIO, a gene expression test that assesses the tumor microenvironment to predict response to immunotherapies; DetermaCNI, a blood-based monitoring tool for monitoring therapeutic efficacy in cancer patients; and VitaGraft, a blood-based solid organ transplantation monitoring test.