Randal Kirk (Insider Trades), CEO and 10% owner of Intrexon Corp. (XON), purchased 34,606 shares on Dec. 13. The price per share was $28.90 for a total transaction of $1,000,113.
Intrexon uses synthetic biology to create environmentally responsible products that meet the needs of the growing world population. The company has a market cap of $3.37 billion.
Kirk acquired 3,256,999 shares since 2013 in nine transactions. His earliest purchase of 1,887,500 shares of Intrexon at a per share price of $16.00 increased in value by about 80% since the initial transaction in August 2013.
Intrexon insiders bought more shares of the company in 2013 than in the following two years combined. In 2013, Intrexon insiders purchased 1,957,300 shares in five transactions while in 2014 and 2015, insiders purchased 532,997 shares in nine transactions and 917,556 shares in three transactions. Year to date, insiders purchased 95,836 shares with Kirk purchasing nearly 80% of the total volume by acquiring 76,436 shares.
One day prior to Kirk’s most recent transaction, Intrexon Senior Vice President of Finance Joel Liffman (Insider Trades) acquired 8,500 shares for a per share price of $28.62. For more information about insider transactions with Intrexon, click here.
The company reported total revenues of $48.985 million for the three months ended Sept. 30. Total revenue decreased in comparison to the reported $53.567 million from the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Net loss attributed to the company decreased from $38.213 million, or 34 cents per share, to $28.982 million, or 24 cents per share when comparing the third quarters of 2015 and 2016. Kirk commented that the company “made good progress across multiple dimensions,” and it “anticipates a very strong finish for this excellent year of accomplishment.”
In December the company announced that its subsidiary, Oxitec’s product, Medfly (Ceratitis capitata), is ready for open field trials. Medfly, a Mediterranean fruit fly, was designed to mate with wild fruit flies and suppress the pest population. Oxitec’s first study on the efficacy of Medfly showed that Medfly was able to eliminate a population of pests within 12 weeks when contained in glasshouses. Intrexon also announced that initial studies conducted on the efficacy of ActoBiotics, a product designed to manipulate dsRNA for biological crop protection, has advanced to development. Corey Huck, Intrexon senior vice president and head of Intrexon’s Food Sector, commented that the company is “pleased by the early results,” which show the system to be a “potentially superior delivery vehicle for biologically active dsRNA as compared to alternative approaches.”
During the third quarter, Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), John Burbank (Trades, Portfolio), and Murray Stahl (Trades, Portfolio) all reduced their stakes in Intrexon. Greenblatt and Burbank both sold out all held shares for an average per share price of $28.68. Greenblatt sold 28,320 shares of Intrexon after increasing his stake by 21.64% in the previous quarter for an average per share price of $28.62. Burbank sold out all 19,981 held shares after acquiring the shares in the previous quarter. The total estimated losses of the holdings were 12% and 7%. Like Burbank, Stahl also bought 17,439 shares of Intrexon in the second quarter and reduced his stake in the company by 16.33% in the following quarter. For more information about guru trades with Intrexon, click here.
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