Ocugen Stock Price and Forecast: Why is OCGN stock dumping?

• Ocugen stock is a retail favourite trending heavily on social media.
• OCGN stock has swung wildly over the last week.
• OCGN was one of the original meme stocks in early 2021.

Ocugen (OCGN) stock is a name we have not covered for a while as the retail crowd had moved on to other things, but this week has seen a resurgence in interest in OCGN shares. This one is volatile, so caution is needed when trading it, but that is what the retail trader likes: movement, volatility and opportunity. 

Ocugen is a medical company that was focused on eye diseases but quickly changed focus once the pandemic hit. Ocugen now has one of its strongest business opportunities in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ocugen (OCGN) stock news

OCGN shares traded near $0.30 in December of last year but spiked to nearly $20 by February 2021. The reason for the surge in OCGN shares was Ocugen partnering with Bharat Biotech. Bharat is an Indian vaccine company working on bringing its COVAXIN COVID-19 vaccine to market. Ocugen will look after bringing COVAXIN to the US market, including regulatory approval and distribution. OCGN jumped again on April 22 as positive trial data for the COVAXIN drug was released.

OCGN shares failed to take out previous highs set back in February but did still manage to register an impressive 42% gain on the day. Further spikes were seen on May 3 as Ocugen announced that COVAXIN proves effective against the main variants of the COVID-19 virus. Since then the shares have calmed down, relatively speaking, and it was not until last week that interest picked up again, social media got hold of the stock and interest soared.

Why is Ocugen (OCGN) stock up?

The reason behind last week's surge was news that Ocugen's Indian partner Bharat Biotech had received approval for emergency use in the 2 to 18 age group in India. The data for the 2 to 18 age group "has been thoroughly reviewed by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and Subject Expert Committee and (they) have provided their positive recommendations," the company told Reuters. Ocugen (OCGN) shares surged by over 18% on October 12 when this news broke. The stock then added to this with another move of nearly 9% higher on Thursday but gave back all of those gains on Friday when OCGN fell over 13%. We did mention it was volatile.

Ocugen (OCGN) stock forecast

We remain cautious on this one and urge you to trade carefully with strong risk management. This news certainly reads positively, but that is for the Indian market. The US is where Ocugen is operating. From a technical perspective, a strong surge like this one needs to see consolidation if the move is to continue, not a drop straight back to where it started from. Ocugen is also in a high volume zone, meaning to really get going it needs to break $11 and close above it. There is a huge volume shelf at $6.50, so keep an eye out if the stock begins to trade down to that level as it could accelerate. The stock's failure to take out the previous spike high at $11 is also bearish in our view. This is a classic spike stock: each spike is lower than the previous one, a bearish sign overall.