Insider Activity to Watch: Opko Health Inc. (OPK)

Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) insider has recently participated in insider trading activity. CEO & Chairman, FROST PHILLIP MD ET AL bought 2,000 shares for $ 16,030 via one transaction Feb 17. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 159,082,943 shares in total, priced at $1395157410 as of Wednesday. Another notable insider trading was done by the same insider on Feb 16. FROST PHILLIP MD ET AL acquired 15,000 shares at an average price of $7.92 for a total of $118,731. Moreover, this insider carried out a sale of 11,000 shares at $7.88 each on Feb 12. The transaction amounted to $86,706. The insider also bought 21,800 shares for $172,671through one transaction Feb 11.

The stock has experienced a total of 42 insider trades in the past three months. These trades include 2 sell activities and 40 buy trades. Furthermore, over the past 12 months, the stock was traded 142 times by insiders. In 7 of these trades, the insider was a seller while an employee of the company was the buyer in just 135 instances.

On February 12, 2016, Xenetic Biosciences, Inc. (XBIO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing next-generation biologic drugs and novel oncology therapeutics (“Xenetic”) announced that OPKO Health, Inc. (OPK) has acquired an approximate 6.3% interest in Xenetic.

Commenting on the investment in Xenetic, Dr. Phillip Frost, CEO and Chairman of OPKO Health, Inc., stated, “Xenetic has many novel technologies that address unmet needs in various orphan cancer indications, and we believe the science and the clinical strategy have the promise to create significant shareholder value.”

Scott Maguire, President and Chief Executive Officer of Xenetic commented, “We are proud to have OPKO Health as one of our largest shareholders joining our other strategic shareholders, Baxalta and Serum Institute of India. Dr. Frost has an outstanding track record in creating shareholder value in our industry.”

OPKO Health, Inc., a biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel and proprietary technologies in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. The company develops various solutions to diagnose, treat, and prevent various conditions, including point-of-care tests, molecular diagnostics tests, laboratory developed tests, and proprietary pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Its products include 4Kscore test that measures the blood plasma levels of four different prostate-derived kallikrein proteins. The company’s lead product candidates comprise Rayaldee to treat secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with stage 3 or 4 chronic kidney disease and vitamin D insufficiency; and Alpharen to treat hyperphosphatemia in stage 5 patients on chronic hemodialysis.