Baker BROS. Advisors LP Grows Stake in Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR)

Baker BROS. Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Xencor, Inc. (NASDAQ:XNCR) by 22.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 670,431 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 125,000 shares during the quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP owned approximately 0.96% of Xencor worth $13,482,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Xencor by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 43,643 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $826,000 after purchasing an additional 699 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Xencor in the second quarter worth about $154,000. Diversified Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Xencor by 7.8% in the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 14,076 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 1,017 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System boosted its position in Xencor by 3.0% during the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 31,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $587,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its stake in Xencor by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 23,530 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $445,000 after acquiring an additional 744 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on XNCR shares. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 target price on shares of Xencor in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Xencor from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Xencor from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective (up previously from $32.00) on shares of Xencor in a report on Friday, November 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $35.75.

Xencor Price Performance

Xencor stock opened at $25.60 on Monday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 6.23 and a current ratio of 6.23. Xencor, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.31 and a 1 year high of $26.84. The company has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.00 and a beta of 0.69.

Xencor (NASDAQ:XNCR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.98) by $0.27. Xencor had a negative return on equity of 30.92% and a negative net margin of 232.77%. The company had revenue of $10.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.59 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.40) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 81.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Xencor, Inc. will post -3.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Bassil I. Dahiyat sold 3,366 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.02, for a total value of $80,851.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 352,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,469,812.30. This trade represents a 0.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP John R. Desjarlais sold 68,684 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.48, for a total transaction of $1,612,700.32. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 200,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,698,441.92. The trade was a 25.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,328 shares of company stock valued at $2,879,673. 5.23% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Xencor Company Profile

Xencor, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the discovery and development of engineered monoclonal antibody and cytokine therapeutics to treat patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company provides Sotrovimab that targets the SARS-CoV-2 virus; Ultomiris for the treatment of patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome; and Monjuvi for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.