XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report released on Monday.

Separately, HC Wainwright lowered their price target on XOMA from $123.00 to $104.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday.

XOMA Trading Down 6.5 %

NASDAQ:XOMA opened at $24.88 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $27.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.07. XOMA has a 52 week low of $19.50 and a 52 week high of $35.00. The company has a market capitalization of $293.09 million, a P/E ratio of -7.15 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 7.52 and a current ratio of 7.52.

XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.39) EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $7.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.66 million. On average, research analysts forecast that XOMA will post -1.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Bvf Partners L. P/Il sold 500,742 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total value of $13,069,366.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Owen Hughes sold 21,881 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,047,621.05. This represents a 38.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 7.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in XOMA by 95.0% in 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. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in XOMA by 51.2% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 2,362 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of XOMA by 18.1% during the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 11,065 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $291,000 after acquiring an additional 1,699 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of XOMA by 300.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 11,256 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 8,447 shares during the period. Finally, Ellsworth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of XOMA during the third quarter valued at $516,000. 95.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.