Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for OncoCyte (NASDAQ:OCX)

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of OncoCyte (NASDAQ:OCX) in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $4.25 target price on the stock.

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on OncoCyte in a research report on Monday, January 13th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company.

OncoCyte Stock Performance

OCX opened at $3.04 on Tuesday. OncoCyte has a 1-year low of $1.92 and a 1-year high of $4.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.72.

OncoCyte (NASDAQ:OCX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 24th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by $0.88. The business had revenue of $1.49 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.16 million. OncoCyte had a negative net margin of 6,122.29% and a negative return on equity of 269.32%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that OncoCyte will post -2.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Patrick W. Smith acquired 90,219 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 26th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $2.13 per share, for a total transaction of $192,166.47. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 1,773,903 shares in the company, valued at $3,778,413.39. This trade represents a 5.36 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Andrea S. James bought 97,561 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $2.05 per share, with a total value of $200,000.05. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 151,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $310,023.55. This represents a 181.78 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders acquired 1,288,344 shares of company stock valued at $2,649,051. Company insiders own 1.58% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On OncoCyte

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ground Swell Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of OncoCyte during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Two Sigma Securities LLC bought a new stake in OncoCyte during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised its holdings in OncoCyte by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 49,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 6,481 shares during the period. Wealthedge Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in OncoCyte in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $126,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of OncoCyte by 12.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 103,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $296,000 after buying an additional 11,289 shares during the period. 55.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About OncoCyte

OncoCyte Corporation, a precision diagnostics company, focuses on development and commercialization of proprietary tests in the United States and internationally. The company is developing DetermaIO, a gene expression test that assesses the tumor microenvironment to predict response to immunotherapies; DetermaCNI, a blood-based monitoring tool for monitoring therapeutic efficacy in cancer patients; and VitaGraft, a blood-based solid organ transplantation monitoring test.