INO Stock Price: Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. attracting bargain-seekers after earnings-related crash

Update 2: INO has been making its way up in Wednesday's pre-trading session, nearing the $15 mark. Bargain-seekers seem to find Inovio's stock attractive after it collapsed by 23% to $14.62 on Tuesday, following the disappointing earnings report – that left more questions than answers. The crash of gold may make smaller stocks more attractive. 

Update: NASDAQ: INO is changing hands at around $15 – a fall of around 20% from Monday's close. The move comes after Inovio published disappointing second-quarter earnings. Analysts at Stifel slashed INO's price from $24 to $16 – and it is already below that level. Uncertainty is looming over the next steps in the pharm firm's coronavirus vaccine trial. The fall is exacerbated by Russia's announcement of registering a COVID-19 vaccine.

It has been a stellar twelve months for NASDAQ: INO investors as the stock has risen by over 750% during that time. On Friday, Inovio closed out the week on a flat note as it shaved 0.54% off of its stock price – ending the week at $20.22. The trading volume was relatively low as it seems that most investors are awaiting the quarterly earnings call on Monday. 

Wall Street analysts are estimating a second-quarter earnings-per-share loss of $0.17 which is far worse than Inovio’s second-quarter loss of $0.03 per share from 2019. If Inovio is able to match or beat the earnings estimates, it would be reporting an increase in earnings of over 40% year over year. 

As far as Operation Warp Speed and the race for the coronavirus vaccine goes, it is unclear where Inovio stands in the big picture. INO is extremely innovative with its vaccine development and its process for the potential COVID-19 vaccine INO-4800 – has been no different. Rather than injecting patients with parts of the actual virus, Inovio has developed a way to administer DNA that includes antigens. The body reads them and is then able to create them, meaning that if the coronavirus ever enters the body – the patient’s immune system would automatically begin to create more antigens in response. 

INO Stock Forecast

Inovio investors must be wondering why the company has not been chosen for one of the $1 billion handouts that other pharmaceutical companies like Johnson and Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) – and even comparably sized rival Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) – have received. Time may be running out for Inovio to become a viable competitor in Operation Warp Speed, and investors should be provided with a status update at its earnings call on Monday.