It has been a rough start for antibody discovery biotech OmniAb (US:OABI) since listing via a SPAC merger with Avista Public Acquisition Corp (US:AHPAU) in late October. The newly listed OABI lost more than 80% of its value in the first two weeks of trading which drove the market cap down from $1 billion to a mere $200 million.<\/p>\n
OmniAb was originally owned by Ligand Pharmaceuticals (US:LGND) who announced they would spin off the unit earlier this year in March.<\/p>\n
The spark of momentum began to turn in the stock around mid-November when OmniAb told investors that it had been notified by Janssen Biotech that the first commercial sale for TECVAYLI had occurred.<\/p>\n
This was the first sign of positive news flow that reignited investor interest back towards the beaten down stock price.<\/p>\n
Later in November, the stock attracted two coverage initiations with \u2018buy\u2019 recommendations from sell-side brokers SVB Securities and Stifel. The initiations pushed the stock up around 25%.<\/p>\n
SVB Securities placed a $6 target on the stock, while Stifel was more bullish with a $12 target.<\/p>\n
Analysts from Stifel believe there is too much of a valuation gap in the stock price and their target, given the competitive technology and the attractive end market with antibody-based therapeutics expected to be one of the fastest growing categories in the drug development market.<\/p>\n
The stock was pushed up a further 18.5% higher on Friday after a form 4 filed with the SEC revealed the groups CEO Matthew Foehr purchased 300,000 shares at $3.39 per share last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The transaction had a total value of $1.01 million and increased Foehr\u2019s total share count to 1.70 million. This trade was the second made in November with Foehr buying 100,000 shares at $2.76 earlier in the month.<\/p>\n
In addition to the CEO purchase, four other insiders bought stock this month.<\/p>\n
Board member Sunil Patel purchased 43,000 shares at $2.77 and now owns 215,512 shares.<\/p>\n
Board member Sarah Boyce purchased 36,000 shares in two transactions at a $2.82 average price and now owns 36,000 shares.<\/p>\n
Board member Jennifer Cochran purchased 30,000 shares at $3.09 and now owns 55,226 shares.<\/p>\n
CFO Kurt Gustafson purchased 10,000 shares at $2.81 bringing his total to 170,062 shares.<\/p>\n
The 5 net insiders that have purchased stock have contributed to OABI\u2019s high insider sentiment score of 92.73. OmniAb ranks in the top 1% of 14,699 screened global securities for the highest levels of insider buying activity.<\/p>\n
The stock also has a high officer sentiment score of 84.11, ranking the company in the top 1.5% of 11,749 screened securities.<\/p>\n
OABI has rallied 94.6% over the last month and more than 50% in the last week alone. Now may be the time to take a look into the stock crossing an inflection point from recent lows.<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on Fintel<\/i><\/p>\n
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