ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

ProKidney Corp. (NASDAQ:PROK) shares gapped up before the market opened on Monday after Guggenheim raised their price target on the stock from $6.00 to $7.00. The stock had previously closed at $4.54, but opened at $4.78. Guggenheim currently has a buy rating on the stock. ProKidney shares last traded at $4.17, with a volume of 4,668,901 shares changing hands.

PROK has been the topic of a number of other reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $9.00 price target (up from $6.00) on shares of ProKidney in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Bank of America cut ProKidney from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $3.00 to $1.00 in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised ProKidney from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $5.67.

Insider Activity at ProKidney

In other news, insider Control Empresarial De Capital purchased 387,393 shares of ProKidney stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $0.71 per share, with a total value of $275,049.03. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 73,842,723 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,428,333.33. This trade represents a 0.53% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Darin J. Weber sold 103,480 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.02, for a total value of $312,509.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 41.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ProKidney

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PROK. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in ProKidney by 106.4% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 52,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 27,098 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in ProKidney by 57.3% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 30,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 11,250 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. bought a new stake in ProKidney in the fourth quarter worth $69,000. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in ProKidney by 49.4% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 86,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 28,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new stake in ProKidney in the fourth quarter worth $88,000. 51.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ProKidney Stock Down 18.7%

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $1.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $1.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.15 and a beta of 1.26.

ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.13) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $0.23 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts expect that ProKidney Corp. will post -0.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ProKidney Company Profile

ProKidney Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides transformative proprietary cell therapy platform for treating various chronic kidney diseases in the United States. The company's lead product is Renal Autologous Cell Therapy (REACT), an autologous homologous cell admixture, which has completed Phase I clinical trial for REACT in patients with congenital anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT), as well as in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease.