Should I Buy LYEL? LYEL 2026 Analysis

Should You Buy Lyell Immunopharma Inc (LYEL) Today? Analysis, Price Targets, and 2026 Outlook.

Conclusion

Sell

Latest Price

24.000

1 Day change

-3.26%

52 Week Range

45.000

Analysis Updated At

2026/01/30

LYEL is not a good buy right now for an impatient investor. With no proprietary buy signals, heavy insider selling, a bearish-leaning options positioning (high put open interest vs calls), and weak latest-quarter fundamentals, the risk/reward is unfavorable at the current ~$25 level despite a recent bullish analyst upgrade.

Technical Analysis

Price is near the pivot (24.918) after a modest up day (+3.25%). Momentum is mixed-to-soft: MACD histogram is negative (-0.0347) but contracting (selling pressure easing), RSI(6)=48.47 is neutral, and moving averages are converging (no clear trend). Key levels: support S1=22.813 (then S2=21.513); resistance R1=27.022 (then R2=28.323). With trend indicators neutral and price sitting near the pivot, the chart does not offer a strong “buy now” setup. Pattern-based stats suggest only a small expected move next day (-0.24%) and next week (+1.27%), with a more meaningful 1-month upside bias (+13.33%), but that longer-horizon edge does not align well with an impatient entry.

Options Data

Bearish

Open Interest Put-Call Ratio

Bullish

Option Volume Put-Call Ratio

Open interest is put-heavy (put OI 588 vs call OI 258; OI put/call=2.28), which typically signals defensive/bearish positioning or hedging demand. Reported option volume is very light (total volume 10; call volume 0), so near-term volume sentiment is not very informative. Implied volatility is elevated (30D IV ~119.75 vs historical vol ~68.43), suggesting the market is pricing sizable moves; IV percentile/rank (34.75/38.64) is mid-range rather than extreme, so options are not screaming “capitulation bargain.” Net: positioning skews cautious, not a clean bullish sentiment read.

Technical Summary

Sell

Buy

Positive Catalysts

Analyst conviction improved: H.C. Wainwright upgraded to Buy (2025-12-
and raised PT to $45, citing increased conviction and favorable expert/KOL feedback; also highlighted durability leadership for ronde-cel in CAR-T.
Technical upside map: if LYEL clears and holds above ~27.02 (R1), it could open a path toward ~28.32 (R
as a near-term breakout target.
No negative news flow in the most recent week (no fresh headline overhang).

Neutral/Negative Catalysts

Insider activity is a major red flag: insiders are selling, with selling amount up ~420.71% over the last month.
Options positioning is put-heavy (OI put/call 2.28), consistent with cautious sentiment/hedging.
Fundamentals are weak (very low revenue base and ongoing losses), which can pressure the stock absent clear, near-term clinical/partner catalysts.
No Intellectia proprietary buy signals today (AI Stock Picker: none; SwingMax: none), removing a key “buy now” trigger.

Financial Performance

Latest reported quarter: 2025/Q3. Revenue fell to 15,000 (-55.88% YoY). Net income was -38.846M (worse/declined by -12.87% YoY), and EPS was -2.13 (down -38.79% YoY). Gross margin listed at 100 (flat YoY), but with minimal revenue, profitability remains dominated by operating spend. Overall: shrinking revenue and deepening loss trends do not support an urgent buy at current levels.

Growth

Profitability

Efficiency

Analyst Ratings and Price Target Trends

Recent trend: H.C. Wainwright moved from Neutral with a $20 target (2025-11-24) to Buy with a $45 target (2025-12-09), a sharp upward revision tied to increased conviction after data/KOL feedback (colorectal cancer commentary; durability leadership claims). Wall Street pros view (from provided data): bullish on clinical differentiation and potential upside (pros), but the market-facing negatives remain insider selling, high uncertainty priced in options, and weak current financials (cons). Politicians/congress: no recent congress trading data available in the last 90 days; no politician activity indicated.

2 Analyst Rating

Wall Street analysts forecast LYEL stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for LYEL is 28.5 USD with a low forecast of 12 USD and a high forecast of 45 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.

1 Buy

0 Hold

1 Sell

Hold

Current: 24.810

Low

Averages

28.5

High

Current: 24.810

Low

Averages

28.5

High

H.C. Wainwright

Neutral -> Buy

upgrade

$20 -> $45

AI Analysis

2025-12-09

Reason

H.C. Wainwright

Price Target

$20 -> $45

AI Analysis

2025-12-09

upgrade

Neutral -> Buy

Reason

H.C. Wainwright upgraded Lyell Immunopharma to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $45, up from $20. The firm has "increased conviction" following the company's recent data and a key opinion leader call on colorectal cancer. Ronde-cel has established itself as the "durability leader in the CD19/CD20 CAR-T race," the analyst tells investors in a research note. H.C. Wainwright adds that its new expert feedback confirms that Lyell's existing LYL273 dataset is "already clearing the clinical high jump for success" in third and fourth lines colorectal cancer "by a wide margin."

H.C. Wainwright

Neutral

maintain

$10 -> $20

2025-11-24

Reason

H.C. Wainwright

Price Target

$10 -> $20

2025-11-24

maintain

Neutral

Reason

H.C. Wainwright raised the firm's price target on Lyell Immunopharma to $20 from $10 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm added colorectal cancer to the company's valuation.

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LYEL Should I Buy

LYEL Should I Buy

Should You Buy Lyell Immunopharma Inc (LYEL) Today? Analysis, Price Targets, and 2026 Outlook.

Technical Analysis

Options Data

Technical Summary

Positive Catalysts

Neutral/Negative Catalysts

Financial Performance

Growth

Profitability

Efficiency

Analyst Ratings and Price Target Trends

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