LGVN headed into its Q1 print already battered — and the numbers did little to stop the bleeding.
The stock closed Tuesday at $0.75, down 10% on the day and 12% on the week. Over the past month it has shed 35%. Earnings delivered May 13 gave a mixed reading: Q1 EPS came in at -$0.19, missing the -$0.16 estimate, though revenue of $398,000 edged past the $315,000 consensus. The net result — a revenue beat that couldn't offset a deeper loss — landed with little fanfare. The data monitoring committee cleared laromestrocel (Lomecel-B) study to continue as designed, a procedural positive, but it did not arrest the sell-off.
The analyst picture tightened materially this week. Maxim Group's Michael Okunewitch downgraded LGVN from Buy to Hold on May 11 — two days before the print — with no updated price target. That leaves HC Wainwright as the lone remaining bull, which lowered its target from $10 to $8 just a week earlier. The Street effectively moved to the sidelines. With the stock at $0.75 and HC Wainwright's $8 target looking steeply aspirational against the backdrop of continued losses, the gap between buy-side optimism and market reality has rarely been wider. The bear case has centred on unexpected safety signals in the HLHS programme and the risk that the ELPIS II study fails to produce efficacy data strong enough for an FDA pathway — concerns that have not faded with time.
Short sellers have been quietly rebuilding after a period of retrenchment. SI climbed 19% over the past week to reach 9.7% of the free float on May 12 — up from a local trough near 6% in early April, when shorts were clearly covering aggressively. The short score has ticked higher all week, hitting 75.7 on May 12, its highest level in the recent history shown. Cost to borrow, while well below its early-April peak near 108%, is back at 43%, up from 37% the prior day. Availability sits at roughly 54% — tight by most standards, meaning there are only about half as many shares available to borrow as are already out on loan. That combination of rising SI, a climbing short score, and still-costly borrow suggests short sellers are comfortable adding conviction despite moderating costs.
The insider data adds a layered picture. On May 1, the CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO, and General Counsel each received equity awards — 500,000 shares to CEO Stephen Willard and 250,000 each to the other officers. None of these were open-market purchases; they were compensatory awards at zero cost. Separately, on April 1, every one of those same insiders sold small lots — at $1.12 per share — in what look like routine tax-withholding sales around a vest. Net insider activity over 90 days is marginally positive in share terms (roughly 150,000 net), but the open-market cash component is negligible. No executive has stepped up with discretionary buying at any price. Vanguard added 81,621 shares as of March 31, the only institutional addition of note among the top holders.
The one constructive signal of the week — the DMC approval for the laromestrocel study to continue without modification — is clinically meaningful. The ELPIS II trial remains the binary event around which the entire thesis is built. With the downgrade now on record, one remaining buy-rated analyst, a short score near 76, and the stock trading below $1, the next focal points are trial progress updates and any communication around the company's cash runway.
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