Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,130,000 shares, an increase of 10.6% from the September 30th total of 2,830,000 shares. Currently, 14.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 421,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.4 days.

Agenus Price Performance

Shares of AGEN opened at $4.39 on Thursday. Agenus has a 12-month low of $4.18 and a 12-month high of $19.69. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $5.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.19 million, a PE ratio of -0.34 and a beta of 1.37.

Agenus (NASDAQ:AGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.52) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.33) by ($1.19). The firm had revenue of $23.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.73 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($4.00) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Agenus will post -10.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Agenus

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Agenus by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 34,401,122 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $19,953,000 after purchasing an additional 4,134,232 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Agenus by 1,959.9% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 757,397 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 720,629 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Agenus by 2.5% during the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 558,606 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 13,604 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Agenus by 52.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 357,915 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $208,000 after acquiring an additional 123,058 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in Agenus by 81.3% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 188,414 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 84,477 shares during the last quarter. 61.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley dropped their target price on Agenus from $42.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. William Blair lowered Agenus from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. HC Wainwright cut Agenus from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $40.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $7.00 price target (up previously from $3.00) on shares of Agenus in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Agenus from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $8.00 in a research note on Friday, July 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Agenus has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.50.

About Agenus

Agenus Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, discovers and develops immuno-oncology products in the United States and internationally. The company offers Retrocyte Display, an antibody expression platform for the identification of fully human and humanized monoclonal antibodies; and display technologies.