Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) Short Interest Up 19.6% in March

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:INO) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,400,000 shares, an increase of 19.6% from the March 15th total of 5,350,000 shares. Approximately 17.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 851,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Inovio Pharmaceuticals

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Alpine Global Management LLC acquired a new position in Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Boothbay Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals in the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 39,114 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 5,111 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals by 118.2% during the 4th quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 39,704 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 21,512 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on INO shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Inovio Pharmaceuticals from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $18.00 price objective on shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals in a report on Friday, January 10th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $3.00 target price on shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.20.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $1.85 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $1.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.95. The company has a market cap of $67.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.46 and a beta of 1.84. Inovio Pharmaceuticals has a one year low of $1.42 and a one year high of $13.44.

Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:INO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.69) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.87) by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $0.12 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.03 million. On average, analysts predict that Inovio Pharmaceuticals will post -4.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Inovio Pharmaceuticals

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a biotechnology company, focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialization of DNA medicines to treat and protect people from diseases associated with human papillomavirus (HPV), cancer, and infectious diseases. Its DNA medicines platform uses precisely designed SynCon that identify and optimize the DNA sequence of the target antigen, as well as CELLECTRA smart devices technology that facilitates delivery of the DNA plasmids.