Sheets Smith Wealth Management Decreases Stake in ImmunityBio, Inc. $IBRX

Sheets Smith Wealth Management cut its stake in shares of ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBRX) by 12.7% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 552,025 shares of the company’s stock after selling 79,950 shares during the period. Sheets Smith Wealth Management’s holdings in ImmunityBio were worth $4,234,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its position in ImmunityBio by 347.7% during the third quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 1,324,871 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,246,000 after buying an additional 1,028,921 shares during the period. Heights Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in ImmunityBio in the third quarter valued at about $16,152,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 26.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,655,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,032,000 after acquiring an additional 5,837,898 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ImmunityBio by 79.2% during the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 452,458 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 199,990 shares during the period. Finally, MOR Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ImmunityBio in the 4th quarter worth approximately $494,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 8.58% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at ImmunityBio

In other news, Director Barry J. Simon sold 23,033 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.18, for a total value of $165,376.94. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,827,788 shares in the company, valued at $20,303,517.84. This represents a 0.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 66.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on IBRX. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of ImmunityBio in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of ImmunityBio in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $12.00 price target (up from $7.00) on shares of ImmunityBio in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ImmunityBio currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $14.20.

ImmunityBio Price Performance

Shares of IBRX opened at $7.36 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $6.30. ImmunityBio, Inc. has a 1-year low of $1.95 and a 1-year high of $12.43. The stock has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.66 and a beta of 0.03.

ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.62) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by ($0.54). The company had revenue of $44.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.07 million. On average, equities analysts expect that ImmunityBio, Inc. will post -0.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.