MacroGenics Stock Crushes Shorts After Drug Data

MGNX has more than doubled today

MacroGenics Inc (NASDAQ:MGNX) is blowing up today, skyrocketing 172% to trade at $30.21. The monster move is a result of a positive late-stage trial update for the company's breast cancer treatment, Margetuximab. This price action puts the stock back near its 52-week high of $32.74 from 11 months ago, and comes just two days after the shares touched an all-time low of $9.87.

What's more, a bunch of short sellers could be pulling their hair out as they watch MGNX climb the charts. Short interest jumped 50% in the last two reporting periods, and now accounts for almost 10% of the float. Going by the average daily volume, it would take these bears almost seven sessions to buy back their shares, so some of today's upside could be at the hands of covering shorts.

And while MacroGenics doesn't see a ton of action from options traders, those who did speculate on the name in recent weeks were focused on puts. Specifically, the February and March 10 puts saw the two largest increases in open interest in the past 10 days.

On the other hand, analysts have remained extremely bullish, with the vast majority handing out "strong buy" recommendations. However, that all-time low from Monday alluded to earlier was prompted by an untimely downgrade to "sell" out of Citi.