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Rigel Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RIGL) CEO, President and Director Raul R. Rodriguez bought 1 million shares of RIGL stock for $688,400 over the past week.

• The transaction is the largest purchase by any insider over the last twelve months.
• The shares of the company have climbed 82.0% over the last seven days.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company involved in developing drugs to treat patients suffering from hematologic disorders, cancer, and rare immune diseases.

Rigel stock has been soaring higher, led by a purchase of 1 million shares by the company’s CEO, President, and Director Raul R. Rodriguez.

The transaction lends a positive outlook as it aligns management and shareholders’ interests. The transaction marks a 521% increase in stake by the CEO, which appears considerably positive. The purchase of shares is the largest transaction by an insider over the last 12 months. However, overall insider ownership remains low. Following the transaction, insiders own only 1.2% of the total stock. Overall, the insider ownership percentage remains low despite large transactions. As per the data by Fintel, the insider accumulation score on the stock is 27.7, indicating a lower accrual score compared to its peers.

RIGL shares have gained 82.1% over the last seven days, subsequent to the CEO Raul R. Rodriguez transaction.

What happened?

Rigel Pharmaceuticals reported in an 8-K it has been unsuccessful in its Phase 3 clinical trial for its fostamatinib drug, FORWARD. The medicine is used to treat patients with premature destruction of healthy red blood cells (hemolysis). The phase 3 trial came on the heels of very successful results in Phase 2, which was conducted solely in the United States.

In the post-trial evaluation, management assessed that although the clinical trial had failed to have a significant effect on the patients in the Eastern European region, it was well received in western Europe and the United States. This means there has been a different result based on regions. Management now aims to analyze the data based on geographic differences.

The company’s success in other markets gives hope that it might succeed in the eastern European countries.

Currently, there is no approved medicine or therapy for treating patients with warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA). In the US, the company’s drug is already approved under the name Tavalisse. It is a kind of fostamatinib, used in treating patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia who have had an insufficient response to a previous treatment.

The current stock price remains near its 52-week low price of $0.64.

Based on the recommendations of seven Wall Street analysts, three have given the stock a buy rating, four have recommended a hold rating, and none of them have given a sell rating. The 12-month price target is $2.61, reflecting an upside potential of 113.93% from the last price of $1.22.

Riley equity researchers have raised their FY2022 earnings estimate for Rigel Pharmaceuticals to an earnings loss of $0.52 per share, up from their prior estimated loss of $0.53 per share. The consensus estimate for Rigel Pharmaceuticals’ current full-year earnings is $0.52 per share.

The options market is bullish, with a put-to-call ratio of 0.17.

Tavalisse is gaining traction in the US market.

In the Q1 2022 earnings results, RIGL delivered strong sales for TAVALISSE. The company shipped 1,836 bottles of the medicine directly to patients and clinics, the highest since its launch. Net product sales increased by an impressive 31% compared to the prior year. The increasing number of interactions with physicians, along with the company’s marketing initiatives, propelled top-line growth. Management expects this strength to continue as the company enhances its sales initiatives.

RIGL ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $107.5 million. The company also has $30 million remaining in its credit facility with MidCap. In addition to this, RIGL is also eligible for potential development milestone payments totalling up to an additional $835.0 million. This should be sufficient to support its ongoing project requirements.

Institutional investors are bullish on the stock.

Institutional investors have grown their positions in Rigel Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter. Of the 328 institutional owners, 320 held long positions in the stock, according to the data by Fintel. Major investors have been FMR LLC, BlackRock Inc., FDGRX-Fidelity Growth Company Fund, Vanguard Group Inc., State Street Corp, and Invesco Ltd.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.33% of the company’s stock.

Concluding remarks

Rigel Pharmaceuticals is focused on bringing drugs for treating rare blood diseases to patients globally. The company has been successful in the US and western European countries. However, it is still evaluating the difference in results due to the geographies. According to Coherent Market Insights, the haematology market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.64% between 2021 and 2028 to reach USD 13.44 billion by 2028. If RIGL is successful in launching its drug, it will significantly benefit the shareholders. However, uncertainty prevails.

Currently, the stock is trading at a discount at a P/S multiple of 2.69x, lower than the industry average of 4.24x. A risk-seeking investor can consider investing in the stock from a long-term perspective.

By Sakshi Agarwalla for Fintel.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

“Two steps forward and one step back” is the story that continues to plague BlackBerry’s (BB) execution. Aside from execution challenges, including prolonged revenue declines, investors have also become seemingly frustrated with the management’s inability in recent quarters to generate much-needed cash from a patent portfolio sale.

The Canadian software company is set to report first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings results Thursday after the closing bell. Having fallen 43% in six months and 61% over the past year, BlackBerry stock is currently priced at just four times forward enterprise value to revenue estimates which is half the valuation the cybersecurity sector trades for. And this puts the risk-versus-reward seemingly more favorable. But does that make BlackBerry a good investment in today’s market environment?

The company is in its eighth year under CEO John Chen’s leadership, and the market is still waiting for quarterly and annual revenues to show improvement. The stock earlier this week rose more than 4% after it launched a new version of its platform designed to improve Google (GOOG , GOOGL) Android automotive systems. Aside from cutting costs when they are building in-vehicle infotainment systems, BlackBerry’s new update is said to simplify development and speed up bringing services online.

But how much of this will benefit the company’s top and bottom lines? While some might argue that BlackBerry’s valuation now more appropriately reflects the company’s near-term fundamentals, on Thursday investors will want to see improved trends in its Enterprise Software Services segment (its largest business) which has struggled for several consecutive quarters. The Internet of Things segment will also be an area of focus. With rising software content in vehicles, analysts will want to see whether BlackBerry can capitalize on average selling price per vehicle.

For the quarter that ended May, analysts expect BlackBerry to lose 5 cents per share on revenue of $159.72 million. This compares to the year-ago quarter when it lost 5 cents per share on revenue of $174 million. For the full year, ending February 2023, the loss is expected to be 21 cents per share, reversing a profit of 18 cents a year ago, while full-year revenue of $730.14 million would decline 20.6% year over year.

While the company has done a decent job carving a solid niche within the security segment, its constant underperformance has raised doubts that the company has the right leadership to grow. In the most recent quarter, revenues came in at $185 million, falling about 12% year over year, missing Street estimates by about $1 million. BlackBerry missed Q4 revenue expectations despite the fact that revenue estimates had come down significantly since the start of the prior quarter.

Not only did important metrics for its cybersecurity business showed more erosion, the company guided for essentially no revenue growth this year in that segment. The company’s continued struggle in the cybersecurity segment is concerning. The management guided the cyber business to deliver billings growth between 8% to 12% for the year. Given the level of investments BlackBerry has made in this business, it should be growing at a rate of more than 20%.

Elsewhere, Q4 adjusted gross margin rate was 68%, compared to 73% a year ago. On the bright side, Q4 Licensing revenue was $11 million, beating expectation, while gross margin came in at 55%, slightly above estimates. Investors will want to see improved trends in these areas, along with improved business and operating fundamentals to reverse the slide in the stock price.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

When will FedEx (FDX) stock finally reach its bottom? That question, among others, will be answered when the company reports fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings results after the closing bell Thursday.

FedEx management, over the past few quarters, have been more open about the challenges the company is facing regarding demand, labor and supply chain issues. They’ve provided more granular details with the trends they are seeing. However, with the stock currently down 20% over the past year, compared to 13% decline for rival UPS (UPS). Last month FedEx stock, which has underperformed the market and its peers over the past five years, formed what traders refer to as a “double bottom” which often suggests that the market has drawn a near-term line for how low the stock should go relative to its value.

The stock has nonetheless been one of the better performers in the transportation sector and the overall market. Currently down 13% year to date, FedEx has bested the 23% decline in the S&P 500 index. Notably, this is despite the fact that the company continues to struggle with labor issues and costs at FedEx Ground due to supply-chain disruptions. However, the company has taken aggressive steps to address these challenges. The question is whether its efforts will yield meaningful improvements to the bottom line.

On Thursday investors will want to hear that same level of optimism, namely about profitability improvements among FedEx’s various segments. Not only must FedEx beat on the top and bottom lines, it must also guide confidently, suggesting that any improvement can be sustainable.

In the three months that ended May, analysts expect the Memphis, Tenn.-based company to earn $6.88 per share on revenue of $24.47 billion. This compares to the year-ago quarter when earnings came to $5.01 per share on revenue of $22.60 billion. For the full year, earnings are projected to rise 10% year over year to $20.59 per share, up from $18.17 a year ago, while full-year revenue of $93.49 billion would rise 11.4% year over year.

The fact that both full-year revenue and profits are expected to rise amid struggles to supply chains, rising cost and labor shortage is a testament to the ability of the management team. Those headwinds, including increased costs related to network expansion, are expected to affected profits for the quarter. The company can offset these costs if it benefited from a combination of healthy demand and increase online shopping.

Assuming the latter remains strong, FedEx is poised to deliver revenue beat. Likewise, the company’s Ground unit, which accounts for 35% of total revenue, and handles online deliveries for many retailers, will have surpassed estimates. Historically accounting for 50% to 85% of the company’s total operating income, growth in the Ground segment has moderated in recent quarters. In Q3, the company beat on the top, but missed on bottom line.

Q2 revenues grew 10% to $23.64 billion, ahead of estimates by $307 million, while adjusted EPS of $4.59 missed by 6 cents. The company blamed the bottom line miss to higher transportation costs and labor costs. Benefiting from higher revenue per shipment, Q2 operating income rose 38% to $1.46 billion. On the positive side, operating income in FedEx Freight nearly tripled, thanks to continued focus on revenue quality and profitable growth, offsetting decline in FedEx Ground.

Often seen as a bellwether for the overall health of the economy, FedEx’s revenue and profit forecast on Thursday will be closely-watched, mostly for any indication of inflationary pressures.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

In trading on Thursday, the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF is outperforming other ETFs, up about 5.1% on the day. Components of that ETF showing particular strength include shares of Block, up about 8.3% and shares of Twilio, up about 8.1% on the day.

And underperforming other ETFs today is the Copper Miners ETF, down about 4.7% in Thursday afternoon trading. Among components of that ETF with the weakest showing on Thursday were shares of First Quantum Minerals, lower by about 10%, and shares of Lundin Mining, lower by about 6.9% on the day.

VIDEO: Thursday’s ETF Movers: ARKF, COPX

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

In trading on Thursday, oil & gas exploration & production shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 3.5%. Helping drag down the group were shares of U.S. Well Services, off about 11.3% and shares of Vaalco Energy off about 9.2% on the day.

Also lagging the market Thursday are oil & gas refining & marketing shares, down on the day by about 3.2% as a group, led down by Delek US Holdings, trading lower by about 8.2% and PBF Energy, trading lower by about 6.8%.

VIDEO: Thursday Sector Laggards: Oil & Gas Exploration & Production, Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing Stocks

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Welcome to the ORATS earnings report where we scan for companies with upcoming earnings announcements, check out historical earnings information, and find a potential options trade. Let’s start by running a scan on earnings reporting this week, which includes the total option volume indicator, sorted from greatest to least.

Focusing on KB Home, as we click through, we see this mid-cap company in the residential construction industry reports earnings on Wednesday, June 22, after the close.

The earnings and financials tab takes us to more detail showing the options market expecting a move of 7.9% in either direction. This move was breached in 2 out of the last 12 earnings.

During that time, the post-earnings move was outside of the implied range 5 times. In those cases, long straddles were profitable. The rest of the earnings moves likely yielded profitable short straddles. We can overlay quarterly financial data by clicking on the ratios below the earn move graph. Let’s look at the PE ratio, which is the stock price divided by the trailing twelve months earnings per share.

For KBH, the current PE ratio is 3.9, which is 48.7% under the average for the last twelve earnings observations. Returning to the overview tab, we can quickly run a scan to find the best option trades. Since earnings are right around the corner, we scan for neutral strategies, then filter the scan results by S%, or smoothed edge, by setting it between negative and positive 3%.

This helps narrow the results to trades that are fairly priced. The highest ranked trade is a Iron Condor with strikes at 18, 23, 28, and 33, expiring on 2022-07-15, for a credit of $1.5.

By pulling up the trade, we can see the theoretical values in more detail. The distribution edge, found by the expected value of the payoff picture on the stock’s historical distribution, has an edge of 10.7%. The forecast edge, which is derived from historical volatility, has an edge of 5.3%. Lastly, the smoothed edge, which is calculated by drawing a best fit curve through the monthly implied volatilities, has an edge of 1.3%. The edge is relative to the mid-market price of the trade. Greater positive edges are a theoretical benefit to the trader. We can also look at the payoff graph. The probability of profit sums the probability of the nodes for the part of the payoff picture above the zero profit line over three standard deviations. For this trade the probability of profit is 68.61%. The reward to risk divides the max gain by the max loss. Here the 1 to 2.3 is the ratio of the max gain of $150 to the max loss of $-350. There are two break evens for this Iron Condor at 21.5 and 29.5. The total greeks and ThinkOrSwim code complete the information on the trade analysis popout.

Next, let’s look at this trade in the trade builder. Over the last month, the stock price fell 20.7%, while the thirty-day implied volatility rose 30.5%. The average slope of the trendlines is negative. The heatmap on the right side of the graph is green where volatility and slope are undervalued, and red where they are overvalued. In this case, short term IV and slope are overvalued, while the long term is slightly overvalued.

We can also see this trade overlaid on the monthly implied volatility graph in the chain tab. The legs for this trade are circled. For any questions or issues with the article, please contact otto@orats.com. To subscribe to the dashboard, please visit https://orats.com/dashboard.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Despite firing on all cylinders with revenues and profits, which have risen strongly over the past several quarters, Accenture (ACN) stock hasn’t avoided the punishment that has ravaged the software sector and the overall market.

The stock has fallen 32% over the past six months and is down 34% year to date, compared to 23% decline in the S&P 500 index. Investors are wondering whether this is a buying opportunity. Accenture will look to answer that question it reports third quarter fiscal 2022 earnings results before of the opening bell Thursday. A leading specialist in IT consulting and outsourcing, Accenture’s business has benefited immensely from the rapid growing demand not only for IT services, but also from increased cloud adoption and digital transition.

The company’s consulting projects, which make up roughly 55% of total revenues, cover areas such as strategy and broad fields including blockchain, technology and digital transformation. In the most recent quarter, its revenue grew 24.5% year over year, while adjusted EPS grew 25% year over year. And this sort of growth is poised to continue through 2025, according to research firm Gartner, which predicts organizations will “increase their reliance on external consultants.” The company’s guidance on Thursday will determine whether Gartner’s prediction will prove true.

For the quarter that ended May, Wall Street expects Accenture to earn $2.85 per share on revenue of $16.05 billion. This compares to the year-ago quarter when earnings came to $2.40 per share on revenue of $13.26 billion. For the full year, ending August, earnings are projected to be $10.35 per share, up 32% from $7.80 a year ago, while full-year revenue of $59.25 billion will rise 32.2% year over year.

While there is some evidence to suggests IT spending has improved, there’s also the concern of a massive pull-forward that has already occurred. The company has to convince the Street that not only can it sustain its current growth rate, but that growth rate can accelerate profitably. Accenture’s management team, which has raised guidance on multiple occasions over the past few quarters, continues to execute on their stated objectives, finding ways to leverage the digitalization trend and increased company’s competitive scale.

The company recently announced the formation of Accenture Cloud First, spending some $3 billion over three years, strategically positioning the company for sustained IT spending across all industries. The company’s investments aligns with predictions from research firm Gartner which forecasts IT spending growth “will continue through 2025, predicting organizations will increase their reliance on external consultants.” Beyond its consulting projects, Accenture also relies heavily on its other segments, which includes accounting, procurement and application services.

As noted, these collective businesses are growing impressively and have lead to six straight earnings beats. In the fiscal second quarter, its revenue grew 24.47% year over year to $15.05 billion, albeit marking a slight deceleration from previous quarter by three percentage points. Q2 adjusted EPS also topped estimates, rising 25% to $2.54 per share. The company benefited from record new bookings of $19.6 billion, up 22% year over year.

New bookings, a closely-watched metric which measures the strength of future revenue. Just as impressive, consulting bookings and outsourcing bookings, which came in respectively at $10.9 billion and $8.7 billion were company records. Accenture also indicated there is no sign of slowing down, raising the range for full-year revenue growth to 24% to 26%, while also raising EPS range to $10.61 to $10.81, above consensus range of $10.54 per share.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

A company’s own top management tend to have the best inside view into the business, so when company officers make major buys, investors are wise to take notice. Presumably the only reason an insider would take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock of their company in the open market, is that they expect to make money — maybe they find the stock very undervalued, or maybe they see exciting progress within the company, or maybe both. So in this series we look at the largest insider buys by the ”top brass” over the trailing six month period, one of which was a total of $265.2K invested across 2 purchases by H. E. Timanus Jr., Chairman at Prosperity Bancshares Inc. (Symbol: PB).

Purchased Insider Title Shares Price/Share Value 05/12/2022 H. E. Timanus Jr. Chairman 2,000 $67.00 $134,000.00 06/16/2022 H. E. Timanus Jr. Chairman 2,000 $65.60 $131,200.00

Timanus Jr.’s average cost works out to $66.30/share. Shares of Prosperity Bancshares Inc. were changing hands at $67.92 at last check, trading off about 0.6% on Wednesday. The chart below shows the one year performance of PB shares, versus its 200 day moving average:

Looking at the chart above, PB’s low point in its 52 week range is $64.40 per share, with $80.46 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $67.92.

The current annualized dividend paid by Prosperity Bancshares Inc. is $2.08/share, currently paid in quarterly installments, and its most recent dividend ex-date was on 06/14/2022. Below is a long-term dividend history chart for PB, which can be of good help in judging whether the most recent dividend with approx. 3.0% annualized yield is likely to continue.

Click here to find out which other top insider buys by the ”top brass” you need to know about »

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

In trading on Wednesday, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF is outperforming other ETFs, up about 3% on the day. Components of that ETF showing particular strength include shares of Scholar Rock Holding, up about 16.8% and shares of Vbi Vaccines, up about 15.4% on the day.

And underperforming other ETFs today is the First Trust Natural Gas ETF, down about 5.4% in Wednesday afternoon trading. Among components of that ETF with the weakest showing on Wednesday were shares of Tellurian, lower by about 12.9%, and shares of Laredo Petroleum, lower by about 9.7% on the day.

VIDEO: Wednesday’s ETF Movers: XBI, FCG

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

In trading on Tuesday, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF is outperforming other ETFs, up about 6.7% on the day. Components of that ETF showing particular strength include shares of Coinbase Global, up about 15.4% and shares of Tesla, up about 10.6% on the day.

And underperforming other ETFs today is the First Trust Preferred Securities and Income ETF, up about 0.3% in Tuesday afternoon trading. Among components of that ETF with the weakest showing on Tuesday were shares of Agnc Investment, lower by about 1.7%, and shares of Old National Bancorp, lower by about 0.9% on the day.

VIDEO: Tuesday’s ETF Movers: ARKW, FPE

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.