Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN)

Precigen, Inc. (NASDAQ:PGEN) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders purchased 27,256 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 790% compared to the typical volume of 3,061 call options.

Insider Activity at Precigen

In related news, CFO Harry Jr. Thomasian sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.06, for a total transaction of $606,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 254,535 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,542,482.10. This trade represents a 28.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Rutul R. Shah sold 42,924 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.85, for a total value of $251,105.40. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 497,751 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,911,843.35. This represents a 7.94% 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 90 days, insiders sold 922,728 shares of company stock worth $5,028,853. Corporate insiders own 41.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Precigen

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State of Wyoming acquired a new stake in Precigen in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Precigen during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Precigen in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of Precigen by 102.6% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 10,714 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 5,426 shares during the period. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Precigen in the third quarter worth $41,000. 33.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Precigen Stock Performance

Shares of Precigen stock traded up $0.27 on Monday, reaching $6.54. The stock had a trading volume of 4,316,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,457,395. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $4.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.62, a quick ratio of 4.12 and a current ratio of 4.82. Precigen has a fifty-two week low of $1.70 and a fifty-two week high of $6.60. The stock has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.55 and a beta of 1.02.

Precigen (NASDAQ:PGEN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $23.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.81 million. Precigen had a negative net margin of 646.99% and a positive return on equity of 717.50%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Precigen will post -0.02 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PGEN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Precigen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 31st. Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on Precigen from $9.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Precigen in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $14.00 target price on shares of Precigen in a research note on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Precigen in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Precigen presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.50.

About Precigen

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.