Legend Biotech Corporation Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:LEGN) Short Interest Up 23.3% in December

Legend Biotech Corporation Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:LEGN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totaling 17,773,269 shares, a growth of 23.3% from the December 15th total of 14,410,603 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,695,457 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 10.5 days. Approximately 9.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Approximately 9.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,695,457 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 10.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Legend Biotech by 100.4% in the second quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 118,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,215,000 after acquiring an additional 59,498 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Legend Biotech by 77.6% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 148,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,277,000 after purchasing an additional 64,956 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. purchased a new stake in Legend Biotech in the 2nd quarter worth about $382,000. Voya Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Legend Biotech in the first quarter worth about $537,000. Finally, Connective Portfolio Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Legend Biotech during the third quarter valued at approximately $805,000. Institutional investors own 70.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LEGN. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Legend Biotech in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald cut their price objective on shares of Legend Biotech from $75.00 to $74.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Legend Biotech from $54.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Legend Biotech in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Johnson Rice set a $60.00 price target on Legend Biotech in a report on Friday, October 17th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.80.

Legend Biotech Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Legend Biotech stock opened at $22.14 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.80, a current ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $4.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.06 and a beta of 0.12. Legend Biotech has a twelve month low of $20.21 and a twelve month high of $45.30. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $24.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.68.

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.02. Legend Biotech had a negative net margin of 26.37% and a negative return on equity of 24.47%. The company had revenue of $272.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $277.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.34) earnings per share. Legend Biotech’s quarterly revenue was up 70.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Legend Biotech will post -1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Legend Biotech

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ: LEGN) is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development and commercialization of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies for oncology. Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, with research and development operations in Shanghai, the company leverages a global infrastructure to advance innovative cellular therapies. Legend Biotech pursues a strategy of strategic collaboration to extend its reach, most notably through its partnership with Janssen Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

The company’s lead asset, ciltacabtagene autoleucel (commercially marketed as Carvykti), is a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)–directed CAR-T therapy for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.