Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX)

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $11.00 target price on the stock.

Nkarta Stock Performance

Shares of NKTX opened at $1.37 on Thursday. Nkarta has a 52-week low of $1.31 and a 52-week high of $11.84. The firm has a market cap of $96.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.73 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $2.01 and its 200-day moving average is $2.90.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 26th. The company reported ($0.35) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.41) by $0.06. As a group, research analysts forecast that Nkarta will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Nkarta news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 17,378 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.20, for a total transaction of $38,231.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 319,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,689.80. The trade was a 5.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 8.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in Nkarta by 138.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,537,922 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,319,000 after purchasing an additional 1,474,560 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 37.4% during the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,520,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,277,000 after purchasing an additional 686,229 shares during the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 901.7% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,504,219 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,236,000 after purchasing an additional 2,254,219 shares during the last quarter. Tang Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Nkarta by 252.9% in the fourth quarter. Tang Capital Management LLC now owns 2,293,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,711,000 after buying an additional 1,643,719 shares during the period. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. raised its holdings in Nkarta by 23.0% in the 4th quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 1,334,696 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,323,000 after buying an additional 250,000 shares during the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Nkarta Company Profile

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.