ImmunoGen Puts Active
by Option Review - November 5th, 2013 4:46 pm
IMGN – ImmunoGen, Inc. – The biotechnology company’s shares dropped 22% to $12.88 today after the developer of anticancer therapeutics announced it will discontinue a Phase II study of IMGN901, its lead drug candidate. The stock was cut to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel Nicolaus today.
Options traders positioning for shares in the name to extend losses in the near term appear to be buying November expiry put options on the stock. The Nov $13 strike puts are the most traded contracts on IMGN thus far in the session, with upwards of 1,000 puts in play against open interest of 33 contracts. Time and sales data suggests most of the volume was purchased during morning trading for an average premium of $0.37 each. Put buyers may profit at expiration this month if shares in ImmunoGen drop 4.5% from the current price of $13.22 to settle below the average breakeven point at $12.63. Shares last traded below $12.63 in December of 2012.
DDD – 3D Systems Corporation – Shares in the maker of 3D printers are up sharply on Tuesday, rising as much as 6.7% to a record high of $70.49 during the first half of the trading session. The sharp move in the price of the underlying spurred activity in the Nov 08 ’13 expiry call options, perhaps has some traders position for DDD shares to continue pushing higher this week.
The Nov 08 ’13 $70 and $75 strike weekly calls attracted substantial volume, with more than 2,000 contracts having changed hands at each strike as of the time of this writing. It looks like traders purchased most of the $70 calls at an average premium of $0.96 each, and paid an average premium of $0.24 per contract for most of the $75 calls. Buyers of these out of the money weekly contracts stand ready to profit at expiration in the event that shares in 3D Systems rally another 3.2% and 6.7% over the current price of $68.75 to top average breakeven points at $70.96 and $75.24, respectively.
Overall options volume on DDD is approaching 35,000 contracts just before 11:30 a.m. in New York trading, which is approximately 145% of the stock’s average daily options volume of around 24,000 contracts. Trading in 3D calls is outpacing that of puts, with the call/put ratio hovering near 2.8 as of the time of this writing.
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Another Immune Company Play – Immunomedics
by ilene - February 13th, 2011 11:08 pm
Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth. Some cancers invade or intrude upon adjacent tissues, then destroy that tissue/organ, and then spread (metastasize) to other locations in the body via lymph or blood. These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which do not invade or metastasize. All of these diseases suggest that there will be a need for personalized therapy, as even within a specific type of cancer, there is wide heterogeneity in clinicopathological features. For instance, leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, etc are all lymphoproliferative disorders (where lymphocytes are produced in excess) affect one or more different biological pathways that play a role in lymphomagenesis (the development of B cells and T cells). Over the past year, on focal point of our investment virtual portfolio has been smaller companies researching and developing treatments for cancer (CRIS, ARIA, ARRY, SPPI, IMGN). The next small company with some very interesting prospects in the pipeline is Immunomedics.
Figure 1. Cancer Prevalence.
In our recent past, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were discussed in the context of a mid-tiered pharma, BIIB and smaller biotech, Immunogen (IMGN). These companies will not be rehashed, but to re-emphasize that mAb and biologics are one of the hottest areas in in biotech. Small molecules have are not the favorites for now (especially in cancer), and that is most likely due to early stage trials, lack of efficacy, or more likely – patent protection, as biologics/mAbs are harder to show equivolance….and thus have the potential to generate cash for years to come.
(IMMU) based in New Jersey, is primarily focused on the development of mAb-based products for the targeted treatment of cancer, autoimmune and other diseases. The company has a number of advanced mAbs that can be used either alone in unlabeled or “naked” form, or conjugated with radioactive isotopes, chemotherapeutics or toxins, in each case to create highly targeted agents (think Inmunogen, but different 'targets'). The company has built a pipeline of therapeutic product candidates that utilize several different mechanisms of action discussed below. The company also owns a stake in IBC Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which is developing a novel Dock-and-Lock (DNL) methodology. …
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.
