Analysts are skeptical of the commercial use of its experimental lung cancer device
Novocure Ltd (NASDAQ:NVCR) is up 2% to trade at $46.08 this morning, amid concerns around the commercial use of its experimental device to treat a type of lung cancer, which extended overall survival among patients in a late-stage study. Piper Sandler and Wedbush lowered their price targets to $62 and $46, respectively, but the latter also upgraded NVCR to "neutral" from "underperform."
Analysts lean bearish toward Novocure stock, with four of the seven in question calling it a tepid "hold" or worse. Plus, short interest rose 5.8% over the last reporting period, and the 8.18 million shares sold short now make up 7.8% of NVCR's available float, or more than two weeks' worth of pent-up buying power.
Shares yesterday gapped to a four-year low of $46.06, registering their biggest single-day percentage drop in over a decade. The equity also broke below its 80-day moving average, and now carries a roughly 40% year-over-year deficit.
The security's typically quiet options pits are bustling with activity today. So far, 1,652 calls and 1,736 puts have been traded, or five times the intraday average amount. Most popular is the June 65 put.
Novocure stock is seeing attractively priced premiums at the moment, per its Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 115%, which sits in the relatively 22nd percentile of its annual range.