BlackRock Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in ImmunityBio, Inc. $IBRX

BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) by 29.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,083,262 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,736,819 shares during the quarter. BlackRock Inc.’s holdings in ImmunityBio were worth $298,399,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hussman Strategic Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in ImmunityBio in the 2nd quarter worth $1,287,000. SEB Asset Management AB bought a new stake in shares of ImmunityBio in the first quarter worth about $18,770,000. Winning Points Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ImmunityBio in the fourth quarter worth about $1,430,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in ImmunityBio by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 32,777,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,899,000 after buying an additional 5,122,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. bought a new position in ImmunityBio during the first quarter valued at approximately $4,281,000. 8.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other ImmunityBio news, Director Christobel Selecky sold 159,478 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.02, for a total value of $1,438,491.56. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 35,064 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $316,277.28. The trade was a 81.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Cheryl Cohen sold 131,210 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.50, for a total transaction of $1,246,495.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 125,386 shares in the company, valued at $1,191,167. This represents a 51.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 435,443 shares of company stock valued at $3,918,819. 66.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on IBRX. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 price objective on shares of ImmunityBio in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Friday, July 10th. D. Boral Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 price objective on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ImmunityBio presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.20.

ImmunityBio Trading Up 0.7%

IBRX stock opened at $8.25 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a PE ratio of -8.51 and a beta of 0.03. ImmunityBio, Inc. has a 12 month low of $1.95 and a 12 month high of $12.43. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $7.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.81.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $51.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.70 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that ImmunityBio, Inc. will post -0.44 EPS for the current year.

ImmunityBio 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.