Investors Purchase Large Volume of Altimmune Call Options (NASDAQ:ALT)

Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders bought 7,019 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 62% compared to the typical daily volume of 4,331 call options.

Institutional Trading of Altimmune

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arax Advisory Partners grew its holdings in shares of Altimmune by 99.7% during the fourth quarter. Arax Advisory Partners now owns 8,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 4,076 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Altimmune by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 8,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,928 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Altimmune in the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Altimmune in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Altimmune in the third quarter worth $38,000. 78.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley Financial decreased their target price on Altimmune from $18.00 to $13.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 6th. Citizens Jmp cut their target price on shares of Altimmune from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “market outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 target price (down from $25.00) on shares of Altimmune in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Altimmune in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Altimmune in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.71.

Altimmune Stock Performance

Altimmune stock traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $2.94. The stock had a trading volume of 2,205,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,226,636. The company has a market cap of $572.71 million, a PE ratio of -3.17 and a beta of 0.21. Altimmune has a fifty-two week low of $2.56 and a fifty-two week high of $7.73. The company has a 50-day moving average of $2.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.82. The company has a quick ratio of 29.56, a current ratio of 29.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.25) by $0.07. Altimmune had a negative net margin of 214,860.98% and a negative return on equity of 42.57%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Altimmune will post -0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Altimmune Company Profile

Altimmune, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, dedicated to the development of vaccines and immunotherapeutics. The company leverages proprietary technology platforms to create intranasal vaccine candidates and novel therapies targeting liver diseases and metabolic disorders. Altimmune’s approach emphasizes the stimulation of both systemic and mucosal immune responses to address unmet medical needs in infectious and chronic conditions.

Among its lead programs, NasoVAX is an investigational intranasal influenza vaccine designed to provide broad, long-lasting protection through a single, non-invasive dose.