Kura Oncology, Inc. $KURA Stock Position Lifted by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) by 37.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,265,030 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 345,951 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned approximately 1.46% of Kura Oncology worth $11,196,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Kura Oncology in the first quarter worth $48,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 471.3% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 9,958 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 32.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 13,304 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 3,241 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kura Oncology in the 1st quarter valued at about $79,000. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Kura Oncology in the 2nd quarter valued at about $80,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on KURA shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Kura Oncology from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Zacks Research upgraded Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Friday, November 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.57.

Kura Oncology Stock Performance

Shares of KURA stock opened at $9.84 on Friday. Kura Oncology, Inc. has a 12-month low of $5.41 and a 12-month high of $12.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $856.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.97 and a beta of 0.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 5.12 and a quick ratio of 5.12.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.85) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.57) by ($0.28). Kura Oncology had a negative net margin of 208.48% and a negative return on equity of 65.42%. The business had revenue of $20.75 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.48 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Kura Oncology, Inc. will post -2.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kura Oncology

In related news, insider Francis Burrows sold 23,726 shares of Kura Oncology stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.78, for a total transaction of $232,040.28. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 33,735 shares in the company, valued at $329,928.30. The trade was a 41.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Thomas James Doyle sold 4,539 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.18, for a total transaction of $50,746.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 130,257 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,456,273.26. This represents a 3.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 146,401 shares of company stock valued at $1,428,697. 6.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Kura Oncology Profile

Kura Oncology, Inc (NASDAQ: KURA) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted oncology therapies. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the company leverages expertise in molecular biology and precision medicine to identify key drivers of cancer growth and design small-molecule inhibitors that block those pathways. Kura’s research platform integrates genomic insights with medicinal chemistry to advance candidates against well-validated targets in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s lead clinical candidate, tipifarnib, is a farnesyltransferase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and various non-small cell lung cancers.