Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HALO) stock is up 3.1% to trade at $19.11 this morning, after Canaccord Genuity upped its price target on the oncology specialist to $21 from $19. The analyst in coverage is encouraged by last night's fourth-quarter and full-year results, which showed progress in HALO's ENHANZE portfolio.
HALO stock rode a mid-September bull gap past former resistance near the $15 level, and climbed to a two-year high of $21.13 on Dec. 29. The equity pulled back from here, due in part to a bearish note from Deutsche Bank. And while the shares eventually bounced from their rising 180-day moving average, they are still down 5.9% in 2018.
Despite today's bullish brokerage note, analyst attention has been mixed. While five brokerages covering HALO rate it a "strong buy," the other four maintain a "hold" or "sell." The average 12-month price target of $21.91, meanwhile, represents expected upside of 15.2% to the stock's current perch.
Short sellers have been in cover mode since these bearish bets topped out at a record high of 25.30 million shares last March. In the most recent reporting period alone, short interest plunged 12.05% to 10.23 million shares, though this still represents 6.4 times HALO stock's average daily pace of trading.