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

StockNews.com lowered shares of XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning.

Separately, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $104.00 price objective on shares of XOMA in a report on Friday, March 28th.

XOMA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ XOMA opened at $19.44 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 7.52 and a quick ratio of 7.52. The company has a market cap of $232.87 million, a PE ratio of -5.59 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $23.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.60. XOMA has a 1-year low of $18.73 and a 1-year high of $35.00.

XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 17th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.46) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.29) by ($0.17). XOMA had a negative return on equity of 24.95% and a negative net margin of 151.34%. The firm had revenue of $8.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.75 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that XOMA will post -1.41 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other XOMA news, major shareholder Bvf Partners L. P/Il sold 500,742 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.10, for a total transaction of $13,069,366.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CIO Bradley Sitko purchased 4,134 shares of XOMA stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 21st. The shares were bought at an average price of $23.89 per share, with a total value of $98,761.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 10,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $250,462.76. This trade represents a 65.10 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 7.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On XOMA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in XOMA by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 182,741 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,840,000 after purchasing an additional 1,138 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of XOMA by 300.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 11,256 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $298,000 after buying an additional 8,447 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of XOMA by 95.0% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 795 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in XOMA by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 142,857 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,783,000 after acquiring an additional 1,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its holdings in XOMA by 51.2% during the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 2,362 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. 95.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.