OncoCyte’s (OCX) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of OncoCyte (NASDAQ:OCX) in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $4.25 price objective on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on OCX. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $4.00 target price on shares of OncoCyte in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. StockNews.com started coverage on OncoCyte in a research report on Sunday, April 6th. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Finally, Lake Street Capital began coverage on shares of OncoCyte in a research note on Friday, March 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $5.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.56.

OncoCyte Price Performance

Shares of OCX opened at $2.90 on Tuesday. OncoCyte has a one year low of $1.92 and a one year high of $4.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $2.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.71. The company has a market capitalization of $82.94 million, a PE ratio of -0.66 and a beta of 0.97.

OncoCyte (NASDAQ:OCX) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 24th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $1.49 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.16 million. Analysts anticipate that OncoCyte will post -2.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at OncoCyte

In related news, major shareholder Patrick W. Smith acquired 1,077,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $5,888,975.55. The trade was a 60.03 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Andrea S. James bought 97,561 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $2.05 per share, with a total value of $200,000.05. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 151,231 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $310,023.55. The trade was a 181.78 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders bought 1,185,625 shares of company stock valued at $2,430,510. Corporate insiders own 1.58% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wealthedge Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in OncoCyte during the 4th quarter worth about $126,000. Ground Swell Capital LLC acquired a new position in OncoCyte in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Broadwood Capital Inc. boosted its stake in OncoCyte by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. Broadwood Capital Inc. now owns 6,244,405 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,862,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,339 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in OncoCyte during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in OncoCyte by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 137,069 shares of the company’s stock worth $326,000 after acquiring an additional 33,089 shares during the period. 55.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.