Intrexon Corp (XON) saw its price target reduced at Mizuho
Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) jumped out of the gate, after the company reported a first-quarter earnings beat, and a 331% increase in revenue from the same period last year. Despite a brief trek south of breakeven around 10:00 a.m. ET, the shares were last seen up 1.5% at $43.70. The generally well-received report is likely disappointing traders both in and out of the options arena.
Specifically, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.85 ranks in the 84th annual percentile. This reveals XON's short-term options traders to be more put-skewed than normal. Elsewhere, over 28% of XON's float is sold short, and would take more than two weeks to repurchase, at the stock's normal daily trading volumes.
On a long-term technical level, there's not much to dislike about Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON). Since this time last year, the security has added over 170%. Still, Mizuho overnight cut its price target cut to $45 from $50. On the whole, though, analysts are behind the genetic engineering stock. XON's average 12-month price target of $56.25 marks a 34% premium to current levels, and sits in uncharted territory. Also, three-fourths of brokerage firms rate the shares a "strong buy."