Short Interest in Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYEL) Declines By 26.1%

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:LYEL) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,980,000 shares, a decline of 26.1% from the February 28th total of 8,090,000 shares. Approximately 4.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,090,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.5 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $1.00 price objective on shares of Lyell Immunopharma in a research report on Thursday, March 13th.

Lyell Immunopharma Trading Down 10.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:LYEL traded down $0.05 on Tuesday, hitting $0.48. The company had a trading volume of 650,382 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,058,144. The stock has a market cap of $142.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.61 and a beta of -0.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $0.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $0.85. Lyell Immunopharma has a 1-year low of $0.48 and a 1-year high of $3.15.

Lyell Immunopharma (NASDAQ:LYEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The company reported ($0.72) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by ($0.52). The company had revenue of $0.01 million during the quarter. Lyell Immunopharma had a negative net margin of 323,792.09% and a negative return on equity of 34.64%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Lyell Immunopharma will post -0.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Richard Klausner acquired 158,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $0.60 per share, for a total transaction of $94,800.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 843,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $506,019. This trade represents a 23.05 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Charles W. Newton bought 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $0.56 per share, for a total transaction of $112,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 200,000 shares in the company, valued at $112,000. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have acquired 733,000 shares of company stock valued at $429,550 in the last three months. 25.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Lyell Immunopharma

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Decheng Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Lyell Immunopharma in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,622,000. Foresite Capital Management V LLC bought a new position in shares of Lyell Immunopharma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,205,000. venBio Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Lyell Immunopharma in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,545,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Lyell Immunopharma by 716.7% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,612,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,032,000 after buying an additional 1,414,746 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Lyell Immunopharma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $887,000. 66.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Lyell Immunopharma Company Profile

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc, a clinical-stage cell therapy company, develops T cell reprogramming technologies for patients with solid tumors. The company develops therapies using an ex vivo genetic reprogramming technologies, such as c Jun overexpression and NR4A3 gene knockout, to endow resistance to T cell exhaustion; and an ex vivo epigenetic reprogramming technologies, including Epi R to generate population of T cells with durable stemness, and Stim R, a proprietary synthetic cell mimetic.