By
Tolu Ajiboye
June 16th, 2023
Inovio stock has been swung significantly in the last 24 hours after rising on news of a new grant and plunging on news of its poor Q4 report.
The continuous spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 strain has directly placed a large spotlight on biotech companies and their stock. Because most of them are scrambling to find some treatment or vaccine for the virus, they have seen sharp spikes in value like never before experienced. For Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO) stock, several market factors have caused a rise in its value. However, INO has plunged again.
Inovio Stock Jumps
Yesterday, the company announced that it received a grant worth $5 million for its efforts towards COVID-19 treatment. According to the announcement, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gave the grant to help the company speed up testing its smart device which can deliver COVID-19 vaccines.
In response to the news, INO jumped by 13.5% even as the rest of the market continued to plunge. The grant easily restored faith in investors who are worried about the current stock market crash. The jump yesterday pushed INO higher, as it eventually closed at $9.50.
Inovio Stock Price Plunge
As much as this is good news, Inovio’s stock has fallen again, completely erasing its earlier gains. Inovio released its full report for its fourth-quarter and the entire 2019, and it just did not meet expectations.
Inovio’s fourth-quarter revenue was a disappointing $279,000. Making it more disappointing is the fact that in the fourth quarter of 2018, the company reported $2.5 million. The same period, Q4 2018, saw a net loss of $33 million. In the recent report, that number had worsened to $37.7 million.
After publishing the report, Inovio lost close to 28% in after hours trading. The stock has now corrected some of the loss, reducing it to 18.95% in premarket trading. INO is currently trading at $7.7.
Inovio has gained over 146% in the last month, with a total of 2020 gains more than 187%. This is a significant loss from last week when it pulled 327% in year-to-date (YTD) gains.
What The Future Holds
Inovio still plans to begin trials next month in the U.S., South Korea and China. The company says that it will use 3,000 for these trials as it continues working on creating its vaccine, dubbed INO-4800. Furthermore, Inovio plans that it will have at least 1 million doses of the vaccine by the end of 2020.
Before now, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) awarded Inovio a $9 million grant to help speed things up. Also, U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced an emergency fund of $8.3 billion, to tackle the coronavirus. Trump didn’t mention any names during the announcement but people assumed Inovio might get a chunk of the fund.
Generally, because of the above, analysts are still bullish about Inovio’s chances. There is still the wide belief that Inovio is still well poised to regain some of the losses it erased recently.
It is important to note that even with the funds, there is no guarantee that Inovio’s INO-4800 will be ready before offerings from other biotech companies.
