OncoCyte Co. (NASDAQ:OCX) Short Interest Update

OncoCyte Co. (NASDAQ:OCX) was the target of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 373,800 shares, an increase of 22.4% from the February 28th total of 305,500 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 89,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrea S. James bought 97,561 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $2.05 per share, for a total transaction 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. The trade was a 181.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Patrick W. Smith purchased 1,077,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $2.05 per share, with a total value of $2,209,080.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 2,872,671 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,888,975.55. This trade represents a 60.03 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 1,185,625 shares of company stock worth $2,430,510 in the last 90 days. 1.58% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of OncoCyte

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $4.00 price objective on shares of OncoCyte in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $4.25 price target on shares of OncoCyte in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of OncoCyte in a report on Monday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Finally, Lake Street Capital assumed coverage on shares of OncoCyte in a research note on Friday, March 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $5.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.56.

OncoCyte Stock Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ:OCX traded down $0.06 on Wednesday, hitting $2.94. The stock had a trading volume of 7,168 shares, compared to its average volume of 65,223. The stock has a market cap of $84.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.67 and a beta of 0.79. OncoCyte has a 1-year low of $1.92 and a 1-year high of $4.75. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $2.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.72.

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

OncoCyte Company Profile

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.