Wedbush Has Lowered Expectations for Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Stock Price

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) had its target price dropped by equities researchers at Wedbush from $38.00 to $36.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Wedbush’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 301.79% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective (up from $11.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Monday, November 24th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Kura Oncology from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Leerink Partners set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Kura Oncology and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.71.

Kura Oncology Stock Performance

Shares of Kura Oncology stock opened at $8.96 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.41. The company has a current ratio of 5.12, a quick ratio of 5.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The company has a market capitalization of $779.70 million, a PE ratio of -2.82 and a beta of 0.22. Kura Oncology has a 12 month low of $5.41 and a 12 month high of $12.49.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The company reported ($0.92) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.72) by ($0.20). Kura Oncology had a negative net margin of 412.95% and a negative return on equity of 91.62%. The business had revenue of $17.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.71 million. On average, research analysts predict that Kura Oncology will post -2.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Kura Oncology

In other Kura Oncology news, insider Mollie Leoni sold 8,180 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.46, for a total transaction of $69,202.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 267,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,261,138.04. This represents a 2.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Francis Burrows sold 23,726 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.78, for a total transaction of $232,040.28. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 33,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $329,928.30. This represents a 41.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 59,794 shares of company stock worth $537,176. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in Kura Oncology by 115.3% during the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 1,284 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 392.8% in the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 3,072 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 59.9% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 4,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,553 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 127.2% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 3,769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 9,958 shares in the last quarter.

Key Kura Oncology News

Here are the key news stories impacting Kura Oncology this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KOMZIFTI early commercial traction — management reported $2.1M in net product revenue from ~5 weeks of sales and rapid payer coverage (~80% of private payers aligned to label), supporting near-term uptake expectations. Q4 & Corporate Update
• Positive Sentiment: Material milestone payments & cash runway — Kura recorded collaboration revenue and milestone receipts (including a reported $135M channel milestone and additional $30M payments tied to Phase 3 dosing) and ended 2025 with $667.2M cash plus ~$180M anticipated collaboration payments, which management says funds operations into pivotal Phase 3 topline results. This reduces near‑term financing risk. Q4 Financials
• Neutral Sentiment: Pipeline cadence: management flagged multiple 2026 data readouts and enrollment progress (pivotal KOMET‑017 frontline trials, KOMET‑007 combos, FIT‑001 expansion). These are potential future catalysts but carry binary clinical risk. Corporate Update
• Neutral Sentiment: Inducement grants: the company issued options for 44,700 shares to four new hires under Nasdaq rules — modest potential dilution and a routine hiring incentive. Inducement Grants
• Negative Sentiment: Q4 earnings and revenue miss — Kura reported a $0.92 loss per share vs. consensus -$0.72 and Q4 revenue of $17.3M vs. est. ~$34.7M. R&D and SG&A rose sharply, driving a wider net loss ($81M). These miss metrics explain selling pressure despite commercial progress. Earnings Recap
• Negative Sentiment: Safety profile and boxed warning remain material risks — differentiation syndrome, QTc prolongation and other serious AEs were highlighted in the label and trial experience; these safety issues can limit uptake, dosing, and label expansion. Safety & Label
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst note: Wedbush trimmed its price target from $38 to $36 (rating remains Outperform), a modest downgrade that may temper upside sentiment despite bullish coverage from other firms. Analyst Update

About Kura Oncology

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.