Legal & General Group Plc Takes $17.57 Million Position in Xencor, Inc. $XNCR

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,091,177 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,568,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in XNCR. Johnson & Johnson purchased a new stake in shares of Xencor in the second quarter worth about $12,043,798. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Xencor by 620.4% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 720,440 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $11,030,000 after purchasing an additional 620,440 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Xencor during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $219,785,000. DCF Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Xencor in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,670,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Xencor by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,165,450 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $109,703,000 after buying an additional 61,692 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Xencor from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Xencor from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Xencor from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Xencor from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Xencor from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.86.

Xencor Price Performance

NASDAQ XNCR opened at $26.06 on Monday. Xencor, Inc. has a 1-year low of $7.83 and a 1-year high of $30.61. The company has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of -12.01 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.79.

Xencor (NASDAQ:XNCR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.29) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.80) by $0.51. The company had revenue of $51.22 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.89 million. Xencor had a negative return on equity of 28.66% and a negative net margin of 155.59%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.41) EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Xencor, Inc. will post -3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Xencor Company Profile

Xencor, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of engineered protein therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, cancer and neurological disorders. The company applies its proprietary XmAb® platform to manipulate antibody structure and function, creating molecules with enhanced immune engagement and extended half-life. Xencor’s research programs span a range of therapeutic modalities, including monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies and cytokine-based fusion proteins.

The XmAb® platform enables precise modification of the Fc region to augment key properties such as receptor binding, effector function and pharmacokinetics.