What happened
Shares of Akoya Biosciences (AKYA -0.52%) were up more than 21% Tuesday morning after a rash of insider buying by executives of the company. The life sciences company's stock is up more than 32% so far this year. Akoya pecializes in single-cell imaging solutions to assist researchers in phenotyping cells.
So what
Akoya executives purchased just more than 2.4 million shares of the healthcare company's stock on Monday, led by director Thomas A. Raffin's purchase of 2.02 million shares, giving him more than 15.9 million shares of Akoya stock. The next-largest insider buy on Monday was director Matthew Winkler's purchase of 203,388 shares, giving him 984,513 total shares in the company. Insiders buy company stock for a variety of reasons, but the rash of buying inspired confidence among other investors.
Now what
Akoya stock hit a 52-week low of $4.28 last week after the company announced a $43.5 million stock sale and that it was firing its chief medical officer, Ehab El-Gabry, and chief people officer, Marilee Moy, in a cost-cutting measure.
The stock sale is likely necessary, because as of the first quarter, the company only had $60 million in cash. However, its financials are improving. It reported first-quarter revenue of $21.4 million, up 26% year over year. It also gave full-year revenue guidance of between $95 million and $98 million, up from $74.86 million last year.
Unfortunately, its losses are growing as well. It reported a net loss of $18.8 million in the quarter, compared to a loss of $16.4 million in the same period last year.