StockNews.com Downgrades XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) to Sell

XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

Separately, HC Wainwright cut their price objective on shares of XOMA from $123.00 to $104.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday.

XOMA Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XOMA opened at $25.72 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 7.52, a current ratio of 7.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $27.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.06. XOMA has a 52-week low of $19.50 and a 52-week high of $35.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $302.98 million, a P/E ratio of -7.39 and a beta of 0.90.

XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.39) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.05. XOMA had a negative return on equity of 24.95% and a negative net margin of 151.34%. The business had revenue of $7.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.66 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that XOMA will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other XOMA news, CEO Owen Hughes sold 21,881 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.95, for a total value of $655,335.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,979 shares in the company, valued at $1,047,621.05. This represents a 38.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Bvf Partners L. P/Il sold 500,742 shares of XOMA stock in a transaction on Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total value of $13,069,366.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 7.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On XOMA

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in XOMA by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,741 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,138 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of XOMA by 300.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 11,256 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $298,000 after acquiring an additional 8,447 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of XOMA by 95.0% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 795 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of XOMA by 1.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 142,857 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,783,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ellsworth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of XOMA in the 3rd quarter valued at $516,000. Institutional investors own 95.92% of the company’s stock.

XOMA Company Profile

XOMA Corporation operates as a biotech royalty aggregator in the United States and the Asia Pacific. It has a portfolio of economic rights to future potential milestone and royalty payments associated with partnered commercial and pre-commercial therapeutic candidates. The company also focuses on early to mid-stage clinical assets primarily in Phase 1 and 2 with commercial sales potential that are licensed to partners; and acquires milestone and royalty revenue streams on late-stage clinical or commercial assets.