Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $13.25.

NKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Nkarta from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 11th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total value of $53,915.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 390,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $807,347.61. This trade represents a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 8.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Savant Capital LLC bought a new stake in Nkarta in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 35.0% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 6,141 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Nkarta in the third quarter worth about $61,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Nkarta by 23.4% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 34,758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 6,601 shares during the period. Finally, Forefront Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Nkarta during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 80.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nkarta Price Performance

Shares of NKTX opened at $2.04 on Wednesday. Nkarta has a 1 year low of $1.31 and a 1 year high of $2.74. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $1.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.03. The firm has a market cap of $144.90 million, a P/E ratio of -1.48 and a beta of 0.60.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.29) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by $0.03. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Nkarta will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Nkarta Company Profile

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Leveraging proprietary activation and expansion technologies, Nkarta aims to harness the innate tumor-killing properties of NK cells while incorporating targeted immuno-engineering approaches to enhance safety, potency and persistence in patients. The company’s platform supports both allogeneic cell manufacturing and genetic modifications to generate chimeric antigen receptor-expressing NK cell candidates designed to address a range of hematologic and solid tumors.

Nkarta’s lead program, NKX019, is an anti-CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy in early-phase clinical trials for relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies.