Short Interest in Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN) Rises By 10.6%

Agenus Inc. (NASDAQ:AGEN - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in 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. Based on an average trading volume of 421,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.4 days. Approximately 14.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on AGEN. William Blair downgraded Agenus from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. HC Wainwright lowered Agenus from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Baird R W lowered Agenus from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Robert W. Baird lowered Agenus from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Agenus from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Agenus has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $10.50.

Institutional Trading of Agenus

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGEN. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Agenus during the 2nd quarter valued at about $51,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Agenus during the 2nd quarter valued at about $106,000. Blair William & Co. IL purchased a new position in shares of Agenus in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $441,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Agenus by 52.0% in the 3rd quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 27,543 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $151,000 after buying an additional 9,422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC purchased a new position in shares of Agenus in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $614,000. 61.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Agenus Stock Performance

Shares of AGEN stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $4.46. The company's stock had a trading volume of 273,295 shares, compared to its average volume of 648,143. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $5.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.08. Agenus has a 52 week low of $4.18 and a 52 week high of $19.69. The company has a market cap of $93.66 million, a PE ratio of -0.34 and a beta of 1.37.

Agenus (NASDAQ:AGEN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($2.52) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.33) by ($1.19). The company had revenue of $23.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.73 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($4.00) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Agenus will post -10.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Agenus Company Profile

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.