Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)

Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC reduced its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR – Get Rating) by 21.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 204,913 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 57,346 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC owned approximately 0.11% of Nektar Therapeutics worth $656,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 50.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,728,968 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $33,170,000 after acquiring an additional 2,928,666 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Nektar Therapeutics by 28.4% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,390,618 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $23,665,000 after acquiring an additional 970,889 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 5.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,430,385 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $104,729,000 after acquiring an additional 918,474 shares during the period. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. bought a new stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth about $3,697,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in Nektar Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,277,000. 92.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nektar Therapeutics

In other Nektar Therapeutics news, CFO Jillian B. Thomsen sold 10,267 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total transaction of $30,801.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 313,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $940,491. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CFO Jillian B. Thomsen sold 10,267 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total transaction of $30,801.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 313,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $940,491. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Howard W. Robin sold 19,635 shares of Nektar Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total transaction of $58,905.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 960,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,880,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,386 shares of company stock worth $121,158 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $5.00 to $3.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 6th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Nektar Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $3.20 to $1.50 in a report on Friday, February 24th. SVB Securities reduced their target price on Nektar Therapeutics from $5.00 to $3.00 in a research note on Friday, February 24th. SVB Leerink lowered their target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $5.00 to $3.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $3.00 to $2.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $4.50.

Nektar Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ NKTR opened at $1.19 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $225.19 million, a PE ratio of -0.60 and a beta of 1.10. Nektar Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $1.15 and a 52-week high of $11.13. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $2.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.02.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by $0.11. The business had revenue of $22.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.21 million. Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 76.92% and a negative net margin of 399.98%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.79) EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Nektar Therapeutics will post -0.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Nektar Therapeutics Profile

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Nektar Therapeutics is a research-based biopharmaceutical company which engages in discovering and developing medicines in areas of unmet medical need. Its research and development pipeline of new investigational drugs includes therapies for oncology, immunology and virology. The firm focuses on using new chemistry approaches to make medicines to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.