Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Stock Price Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average of $0.65

Shares of Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $0.65 and traded as high as $1.70. Nektar Therapeutics shares last traded at $1.57, with a volume of 2,847,014 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Nektar Therapeutics from $0.50 to $1.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, January 26th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nektar Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.50.

Nektar Therapeutics Stock Down 6.0 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $288.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.08 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $0.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $0.65.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.21) by ($0.01). Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 96.80% and a negative net margin of 306.31%. The company had revenue of $23.89 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.09 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.32) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Nektar Therapeutics will post -0.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nektar Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NKTR. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 5.2% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,790,742 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $9,652,000 after purchasing an additional 88,042 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 2.1% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 441,771 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,381,000 after purchasing an additional 9,090 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 14.1% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 159,106 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $858,000 after purchasing an additional 19,617 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 29.1% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,002,601 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $10,795,000 after purchasing an additional 451,433 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 5.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,430,385 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $104,729,000 after purchasing an additional 918,474 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.88% of the company’s stock.

Nektar Therapeutics Company Profile

Nektar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering and developing medicines in the field of immunotherapy in the United States and internationally. The company is developing rezpegaldesleukin, a cytokine Treg stimulant that is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and ulcerative colitis, as well as phase 1B clinical trial to treat atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; and NKTR-255, an IL-15 receptor agonist, which is in phase 1/2 clinical trial for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma, and head and neck cancer squamous cell carcinoma and colorectal cancer.