Oncothyreon Inc (Nasdaq:ONTY) Remains Stable Following Strong ASCO Publications

[[tagnumber 0]][[tagnumber 1]]Unlike many other biotechs focused on finding novel cancer treatment solutions, the shares of Oncothyreon Inc (Nasdaq:ONTY) have been enjoying a somewhat more favourable chart performance following a couple of company–related publications for this year‘s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO in short. The boost was fueled by some good results stemming from the company‘s phase 1B trial for its breast cancer product candidate. Does ONTY seem poised to retain the recent gains, though?[[tagnumber 2]] [[tagnumber 0]]A quick review of Oncothyreon‘s latest 10–Q indicates that the biotech has enough working capital to conduct its trials for the upcoming quarters due to funds by means of both public offering of stock and sale of convertible preferred stock. Considering that barely half of ONTY‘s A/S has so far been issued and outstanding, the prospects of new public offerings in the short term do not seem unlikely at all and investors should expect further dilution down the road.[[tagnumber 2]] [[tagnumber 0]]The latter notion is further supported by analysts‘ forecasts for ONTY‘s revenue streams over the next few years. As a matter of fact, they do not expect any earnings before 2019 or beyond, which is only logical given the average amount of time it takes for a clinical product candidate to get an FDA approval in the best–case scenario. The results reported at this year‘s ASCO do sound promising. However, ONTY will need to show an identical outcome during the next stage of the trial in order to keep investors focused on the stock.[[tagnumber 2]] [[tagnumber 0]][[tagnumber 8]]That more good news will be required from the ONTY camp in the near future is evident from two more points of view. First, the current short interest in ONTY shares is so high that it would take shorters more than seven days to cover their positions in the event of a sudden rebound. So there is already a hefty group of traders with a pessimistic outlook on the stock. Second, the insiders‘ activity for the last twelve months is indicative of their expectations about ONTY‘s chart potential. Given that they‘ve only bought $0.65 million and got rid of more than $4 million shares of common ONTY stock over the last twelve months on record hints that insider confidence in the stock might not be at its highest right now.[[tagnumber 2]]