Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Receives $4.50 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) have earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $4.50.

NKTR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $1.00 to $2.00 in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $6.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a report on Monday, May 12th. StockNews.com lowered Nektar Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $6.50 target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 13th.

Institutional Trading of Nektar Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Two Sigma Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 56.3% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Securities LLC now owns 27,654 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 9,958 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC acquired a new position in Nektar Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. US Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 257.8% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 50,085 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 36,085 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.88% of the company’s stock.

Nektar Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Nektar Therapeutics stock opened at $0.63 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $0.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $0.87. Nektar Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $0.43 and a fifty-two week high of $1.75. The company has a market cap of $117.71 million, a P/E ratio of -0.75 and a beta of 0.62.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($0.04). Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 173.28% and a negative net margin of 180.70%. The business had revenue of $10.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.18) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Nektar Therapeutics will post -0.72 EPS for the current year.

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 2b clinical trial to treat atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; and NKTR-255, an IL-15 receptor agonist, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to boost the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer.