Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT)

Altimmune, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders purchased 15,499 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 78% compared to the average volume of 8,714 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ALT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JMP Securities lowered their target price on shares of Altimmune from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of Altimmune in a research report on Friday. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $12.00 price target on shares of Altimmune in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Guggenheim lowered shares of Altimmune from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Altimmune in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.80.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Altimmune

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ALT. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Altimmune by 19.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 60,800 shares of the company’s stock valued at $619,000 after buying an additional 9,977 shares during the period. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Altimmune by 1,282.4% in the first quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 470,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,785,000 after buying an additional 436,000 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in Altimmune in the first quarter valued at approximately $141,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in Altimmune by 517.7% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 53,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $547,000 after buying an additional 45,032 shares during the period. Finally, Knoll Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Altimmune by 183.6% in the first quarter. Knoll Capital Management LLC now owns 567,219 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,774,000 after buying an additional 367,219 shares during the period. 78.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Altimmune Trading Up 27.0 %

ALT stock traded up $1.73 during trading on Monday, hitting $8.14. 10,060,108 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,630,651. Altimmune has a one year low of $2.09 and a one year high of $14.84. The stock has a market cap of $577.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.92 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.79.

Altimmune (NASDAQ:ALT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported ($0.34) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.36) by $0.02. Altimmune had a negative net margin of 22,645.37% and a negative return on equity of 46.96%. The company had revenue of $0.01 million for the quarter. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.40) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Altimmune will post -1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Altimmune Company Profile

Altimmune, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing treatments for obesity and liver diseases. The company's lead product candidate, pemvidutide, a GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist that is in Phase 2 trial for the treatment of obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis.