Here's Why Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Sank 30.8% in July

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: INO), a clinical-stage biotech focused on DNA immunotherapies and vaccines, fell by nearly a third in July, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The drop was due to the company's decision to raise capital through a dilutive common stock offering.

Inovio announced its intention to raise up to $86.25 million through an equity offering in mid-July. The company said that the proceeds from the deal would be primarily used to fund its vast clinical pipeline.

Unfortunately, investors learned a few days after the announcement that the secondary offering was taking place at $6 per share. That price represented a sharp discount to the closing price of $7.83 on the day that the capital raise was first announced. The lower-than-anticipated offering price suggests that the company had trouble attracting enough interest from investors to raise all of the capital that it needed. As a result, it had to sell 12.5 million shares of common stock in order to raise the full $75 million, which is a higher rate of dilution than the markets were likely expecting.

Source: Fool.com