What A Week For MannKind

MannKind Corporation MNKD investors haven’t had much to cheer about lately, with the stock down more than 80 percent in the past three years. However, this week provided investors with a bit of optimism and traders with a huge opportunity for profits.

What Happened?

MannKind shares caught fire this week and are on track to close out the week up more than 140 percent. The move appears to have been triggered by the FDA approving an update to the company’s Afrezza prescribing information to include new study data indicating time-action profiles.

“These data articulate the rapid-acting nature of Afrezza to address post-prandial hyperglycemia, setting it apart from other mealtime options available to help patients maintain greater control over their blood glucose levels,” said Satish Garg, MD, MBBS, DM — Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes (BDC) – University of Colorado, in the company’s press release.

In addition to the positive fundamental news, the stock may have been subject to a short squeeze as well. According to Yahoo Finance, there are more than 21 million shares held short for an elevated short percent of float of 29.7.

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Not Everyone Surprised

This week’s huge move on massive volume took MannKind stock as high as $6.51 after it was trading as low as $0.67 back in May. While most Wall Street analysts had left MannKind for dead, Maxim Group initiated coverage with a Buy rating back in August.

“In the U.S., a conservative 5% share of the insulin market is a $350M opportunity," analyst Jason Kolbert said at the time. "At the current ~$120M market capitalization there is significant upside, in our view."

Levels To Watch

For now, technical traders will be watching the Dec. 2016 high of $4.34 as a possible support level on a pullback. However, If MannKind maintains its bullish momentum, it may not run into serious technical resistance until it hits its 2016 high of $11.20.

Joel Elconin contributed to this story.