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

Shares of Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $13.25.

Several research firms have weighed in on NKTX. Wall Street Zen upgraded Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a report on Monday, December 29th.

Nkarta Stock Down 5.4%

NKTX opened at $2.43 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $172.60 million, a P/E ratio of -1.76 and a beta of 0.47. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $2.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.10. Nkarta has a 52-week low of $1.31 and a 52-week high of $2.81.

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 transaction of $53,915.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 390,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,347.61. This trade represents a 6.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 8.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GSK plc acquired a new position in Nkarta in the 4th quarter valued at $5,829,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM boosted its stake in Nkarta by 29.2% during the 4th quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 2,546,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,712,000 after purchasing an additional 576,022 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Nkarta by 48.6% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,702,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,149,000 after purchasing an additional 556,945 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,006,000 after buying an additional 10,065 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Nkarta by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,169,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,163,000 after buying an additional 21,241 shares during the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Nkarta

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.