Stephens Downgrades Avid Bioservices (NASDAQ:CDMO) to Hold

Avid Bioservices (NASDAQ:CDMO) was downgraded by equities researchers at Stephens from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on CDMO. Craig Hallum downgraded Avid Bioservices from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Avid Bioservices in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded Avid Bioservices to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $12.50 target price (up from $12.00) on shares of Avid Bioservices in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.63.

Avid Bioservices Price Performance

Shares of Avid Bioservices stock opened at $12.29 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.95. Avid Bioservices has a 52 week low of $4.07 and a 52 week high of $12.48. The company has a market capitalization of $783.98 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.41 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74.

Avid Bioservices (NASDAQ:CDMO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, September 9th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.08) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $40.17 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.50 million. Avid Bioservices had a negative return on equity of 16.53% and a negative net margin of 101.26%. As a group, analysts expect that Avid Bioservices will post -0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Nicholas Stewart Green sold 17,173 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.05, for a total value of $172,588.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 226,653 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,277,862.65. The trade was a 7.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 19,323 shares of company stock valued at $194,208 over the last ninety days. 3.05% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Avid Bioservices

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of CDMO. Emerald Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Avid Bioservices in the third quarter valued at approximately $16,489,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Avid Bioservices by 42.8% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,815,806 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $43,424,000 after purchasing an additional 1,142,756 shares during the period. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Avid Bioservices in the third quarter valued at approximately $11,953,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Avid Bioservices by 12,530.9% in the third quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 1,003,653 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $11,422,000 after purchasing an additional 995,707 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Avid Bioservices by 5,631.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 726,193 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,185,000 after buying an additional 713,523 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.16% of the company’s stock.

Avid Bioservices Company Profile

Avid Bioservices, Inc operates as a contract development and manufacturing organization for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries in the United States. It provides process development and current good manufacturing practice clinical and commercial manufacturing services of biologics, including clinical and commercial drug substance manufacturing, bulk packaging, release and stability testing, regulatory submission and support, upstream and downstream development and optimization, analytical methods development, cell line development, testing, and characterization services.