Board Director Invests $1.5 Million in Xencor Inc (XNCR) Amid the IPO

On Friday, Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR)’s Board Director, John Stafford III acquired 275,000 company shares at its initial public offering (IPO). He paid the full IPO price, $5.50 per share, in a transaction worth more than $1.5 million. These shares add up to the ones he got in exchange for his Series A-1 Preferred Stock (every 3.1 shares of Series A-1 Preferred Stock automatically converted into 1 share of common stock).

Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR) is a small-cap clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops engineered monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergic diseases, and cancer, closed its IPO last Friday, Dec 6^th. It offered 14,639,500 shares of its common stock at an IPO price of $5.50 per share. After deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, and estimated offering expenses, the company projects net proceeds from the offering to be around $72.4 million.

Since the opening of the IPO, several forms reporting insider trades have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. However, most of them have been disclosures from Board directors and major shareholders, who received the new, publicly traded, stock of Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR) in exchange for their Series A-1 Preferred Stock.

Back to Stafford: the director now holds more than 7.8 million shares of common stock, valued at more than $64 million. As the owner of more than 25% of the outstanding shares, Stafford stands as the largest shareholder after the IPO. In fact, he was already the largest stockholder before the company went public, owning 45.2% of the company’s shares, according to Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR)’s S-1 form. In addition, John Stafford, Jr, owned an extra 10.3%, and James Stafford another 6.2%. They now own 5.9% and 3.4% of the total shares, respectively.

Other strong betters on Xencor Inc (NASDAQ:XNCR) are Atul Saran and R Harold Werner, Board Directors, and MedImmune Ventures, Inc. However, currently, none of the major hedge funds that we track hold stakes in this biopharmaceutical company. Still, this could be explained, not by a lack of bullish sentiment, but by the very little time passed since the company went public. Nonetheless, its negative figures for margins and returns are eye-catching: investors should be aware of the risks involved in investing in a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.

One way or another, stock is on the rise now, and could certainly be a good play, at least for short-sellers.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no position in any stocks mentioned

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