New York, February 26, 2026, 06:44 ET — Premarket
- After tumbling sharply on Wednesday, shares steadied ahead of the open.
- New SEC filings pointed to insider selling, while a revised disclosure showed a change in a major holder’s position.
- Investors eye developments around Anktiva as well as news from upcoming medical conferences.
ImmunityBio shares bounced 4.2% to $9.94 ahead of Thursday’s open, clawing back some ground after a steep 17.4% loss the previous session. The stock seesawed between $12.43 and $9.38 on Wednesday, trading on hefty volume.
The rebound once again spotlights a biotech name that’s been all over the map this week, as traders weigh fast profits against the bigger picture for its flagship drug, Anktiva—a bladder cancer immunotherapy.
Attention has shifted to sellers, the holdouts, and the next round of clinical or regulatory news. A string of SEC filings in just the past two days has thrown those issues right back onto investors’ screens.
Director Barry J. Simon unloaded 10,000 shares at $9.25 apiece on Feb. 20, then followed up with a much bigger sale—165,000 shares—three days later at a weighted average price near $10.25, according to a Form 4 filed Feb. 24. The document notes these trades were executed under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which allows insiders to schedule sales in advance.
Director Christobel Selecky, according to a separate Form 4 filed that day, exercised options for 25,000 shares at $2.98 apiece and sold the same number at $10 on Feb. 23. After those trades, Selecky held none of the shares from that batch. The filing noted the transaction took place under a Rule 10b5-1 plan.
On Feb. 25, a fresh filing popped up: Cambridge Equities LP and related entities updated their Schedule 13D, revealing they now hold 261.7 million shares in ImmunityBio. That’s 25.5% of shares outstanding, by the company’s own numbers.
Investors are still digesting ImmunityBio’s latest commercial numbers and regulatory news after the ownership disclosure. On Feb. 23, the company reported about $113 million in 2025 net product revenue for Anktiva and noted expanded authorizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and the European Union. The company also posted a 2025 net loss near $351 million. Founder and Executive Chairman Patrick Soon‑Shiong called Saudi Arabia’s lung cancer clearance “a defining moment.” CEO Richard Adcock pointed to “growing clinical adoption” of Anktiva in the results. SEC
Still, it’s not a one-way street. A stock that’s surged can just as quickly pull back on routine profit-taking. Momentum buyers get jittery if they see insiders cashing out—scheduled or not. And if there’s a hiccup with rollout, reimbursement, supply, or if regulators demand extra data, that rally—built on rapid-fire expectations—gets put to the test.
Anktiva landed U.S. FDA approval in 2024 for use in combination therapy targeting a form of bladder cancer, entering a space currently dominated by Merck’s Keytruda. Recurrence still looms large as a concern among patients and physicians.
Looking ahead, the next checkpoint is the ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, scheduled by ImmunityBio for Feb. 26–28. Traders are tuned in for updates—new data, trial commentary, anything that could shift the narrative or simply muddy it.
