Precigen Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:PGEN)

Precigen, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGEN) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 8,846 call options on the company. This is an increase of 363% compared to the average daily volume of 1,911 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on PGEN. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on shares of Precigen from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen cut Precigen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 31st. Zacks Research upgraded Precigen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Precigen in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Precigen

In other news, insider Donald P. Lehr sold 29,131 shares of Precigen stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.36, for a total transaction of $127,011.16. Following the sale, the insider owned 755,461 shares in the company, valued at $3,293,809.96. This trade represents a 3.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Helen Sabzevari sold 119,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.36, for a total transaction of $519,930.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,768,872 shares in the company, valued at $16,432,281.92. This trade represents a 3.07% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,005,749 shares of company stock worth $16,765,918. Insiders own 41.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lansing Street Advisors bought a new position in Precigen during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,800,000. Boxer Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Precigen in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,796,000. Occam Crest Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Precigen by 29.6% in the 4th quarter. Occam Crest Management LP now owns 3,501,739 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $14,637,000 after purchasing an additional 799,339 shares in the last quarter. Investment Insight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Precigen in the 4th quarter valued at about $443,000. Finally, UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of Precigen by 41.4% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 891,428 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,726,000 after purchasing an additional 260,824 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 33.51% of the company’s stock.

Precigen Trading Up 9.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:PGEN traded up $0.45 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $5.26. 2,797,453 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,392,406. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.46 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $4.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $4.11. Precigen has a 1 year low of $1.39 and a 1 year high of $5.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.62, a current ratio of 4.82 and a quick ratio of 4.12.

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

Precigen Company Profile

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.