Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Receives Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reiterated their buy rating on shares of Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $15.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on NKTX. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Nkarta from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. HC Wainwright lowered their target price on shares of Nkarta from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Raymond James reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $16.00 price target (up previously from $13.00) on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Nkarta from $31.00 to $25.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $17.83.

Nkarta Trading Down 7.9 %

NKTX stock opened at $8.06 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $398.29 million, a PE ratio of -3.36 and a beta of 0.70. Nkarta has a 12 month low of $1.28 and a 12 month high of $16.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $11.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.46.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The company reported ($0.57) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.62) by $0.05. Sell-side analysts forecast that Nkarta will post -2.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Nkarta

In other Nkarta news, Director Simeon George bought 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $10.00 per share, for a total transaction of $20,000,000.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 1,548,341 shares in the company, valued at $15,483,410. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Nkarta news, insider David Shook sold 3,552 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.74, for a total transaction of $31,044.48. Following the sale, the insider now owns 114,980 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,004,925.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Simeon George purchased 2,000,000 shares of Nkarta stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $10.00 per share, with a total value of $20,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,548,341 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,483,410. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 17,392 shares of company stock worth $165,512 over the last three months. 5.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in shares of Nkarta by 735.3% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,711 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 4,147 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Nkarta by 33.4% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors Inc. now owns 842,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,585,000 after acquiring an additional 210,700 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in Nkarta by 69.7% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 234,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,663,000 after acquiring an additional 96,100 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Nkarta by 1.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 276,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,144,000 after purchasing an additional 2,806 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Nkarta by 5.9% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 27,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 1,554 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.54% of the company’s stock.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes natural killer cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune disease treatment. The company's lead product candidate is NKX019, a chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR NK) targeting the CD19 antigen that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (r/r) non-hodgkin lymphoma, as well as for lupus nephritis.