Verition Fund Management LLC Purchases Shares of 23,679 Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA)

Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:IOVA) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 23,679 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in IOVA. Perceptive Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Iovance Biotherapeutics by 34.6% during the 2nd quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 25,933,142 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $207,984,000 after purchasing an additional 6,660,151 shares during the last quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics by 195.1% during the second quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC now owns 4,132,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $33,139,000 after buying an additional 2,731,688 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $12,929,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics by 59.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,033,184 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $37,872,000 after acquiring an additional 1,496,941 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in Iovance Biotherapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,065,000. 77.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Iovance Biotherapeutics

In related news, Director Ryan D. Maynard sold 50,000 shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.06, for a total value of $503,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 7,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,450. This trade represents a 86.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 12.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ IOVA opened at $7.83 on Monday. Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $6.70 and a twelve month high of $18.33. The stock has a market cap of $2.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.25 and a beta of 0.55. The company’s fifty day moving average is $9.63 and its 200-day moving average is $9.35.

Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:IOVA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.28) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.31) by $0.03. Iovance Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 58.43% and a negative net margin of 451.25%. The company had revenue of $58.56 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.54 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.46) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. will post -1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on IOVA. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective on shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Iovance Biotherapeutics in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.33.

Iovance Biotherapeutics Profile

Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc, a commercial-stage biotechnology company, develops and commercializes cell therapies using autologous tumor infiltrating lymphocyte for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and other solid tumor cancers in the United States. The company offers Amtagvi, a tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy used to treat adult patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma; and Proleukin, an interleukin-2 product for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.