It has been a rough start for antibody discovery biotech OmniAb (US:OABI) since listing via a SPAC merger with Avista Public Acquisition Corp (US:AHPAU) in late October. The newly listed OABI lost more than 80% of its value in the first two weeks of trading which drove the market cap down from $1 billion to a mere $200 million.

OmniAb was originally owned by Ligand Pharmaceuticals (US:LGND) who announced they would spin off the unit earlier this year in March.

The spark of momentum began to turn in the stock around mid-November when OmniAb told investors that it had been notified by Janssen Biotech that the first commercial sale for TECVAYLI had occurred.

This was the first sign of positive news flow that reignited investor interest back towards the beaten down stock price.

Later in November, the stock attracted two coverage initiations with ‘buy’ recommendations from sell-side brokers SVB Securities and Stifel. The initiations pushed the stock up around 25%.

SVB Securities placed a $6 target on the stock, while Stifel was more bullish with a $12 target.

Analysts from Stifel believe there is too much of a valuation gap in the stock price and their target, given the competitive technology and the attractive end market with antibody-based therapeutics expected to be one of the fastest growing categories in the drug development market.

The stock was pushed up a further 18.5% higher on Friday after a form 4 filed with the SEC revealed the groups CEO Matthew Foehr purchased 300,000 shares at $3.39 per share last Wednesday.

The transaction had a total value of $1.01 million and increased Foehr’s total share count to 1.70 million. This trade was the second made in November with Foehr buying 100,000 shares at $2.76 earlier in the month.

In addition to the CEO purchase, four other insiders bought stock this month.

Board member Sunil Patel purchased 43,000 shares at $2.77 and now owns 215,512 shares.

Board member Sarah Boyce purchased 36,000 shares in two transactions at a $2.82 average price and now owns 36,000 shares.

Board member Jennifer Cochran purchased 30,000 shares at $3.09 and now owns 55,226 shares.

CFO Kurt Gustafson purchased 10,000 shares at $2.81 bringing his total to 170,062 shares.

The 5 net insiders that have purchased stock have contributed to OABI’s high insider sentiment score of 92.73. OmniAb ranks in the top 1% of 14,699 screened global securities for the highest levels of insider buying activity.

The stock also has a high officer sentiment score of 84.11, ranking the company in the top 1.5% of 11,749 screened securities.

OABI has rallied 94.6% over the last month and more than 50% in the last week alone. Now may be the time to take a look into the stock crossing an inflection point from recent lows.

This article originally appeared on Fintel

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