Steven Leonard Chapman Sells 3,848 Shares of Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) Stock

Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) CEO Steven Leonard Chapman sold 3,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.08, for a total transaction of $881,499.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 136,568 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,284,997.44. This represents a 2.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Steven Leonard Chapman also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, December 1st, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 4,400 shares of Natera stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.07, for a total transaction of $1,047,508.00.
• On Monday, November 3rd, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 160,703 shares of Natera stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.96, for a total transaction of $32,134,171.88.
• On Tuesday, October 28th, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 3,680 shares of Natera stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.46, for a total transaction of $704,572.80.
• On Monday, October 27th, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 2,335 shares of Natera stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.32, for a total transaction of $449,067.20.
• On Tuesday, October 21st, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 1,603 shares of Natera stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.95, for a total value of $301,283.85.

Natera Stock Up 4.8%

Shares of Natera stock traded up $11.32 on Tuesday, hitting $248.74. The stock had a trading volume of 1,550,717 shares, compared to its average volume of 965,766. The stock has a market cap of $34.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -108.62 and a beta of 1.62. Natera, Inc. has a twelve month low of $125.38 and a twelve month high of $249.15. The business’s 50 day moving average is $224.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $184.78.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The medical research company reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by ($0.25). The firm had revenue of $592.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $514.55 million. Natera had a negative return on equity of 25.07% and a negative net margin of 14.61%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.26) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Natera, Inc. will post -1.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Natera

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTRA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Natera by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,676,653 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,141,594,000 after acquiring an additional 282,826 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Natera by 9.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,628,914 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,871,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,129 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Natera by 2.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,389,599 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $545,624,000 after purchasing an additional 72,087 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Natera by 37.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,665,013 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $428,987,000 after purchasing an additional 727,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Natera by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,552,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $430,640,000 after purchasing an additional 166,768 shares in the last quarter. 99.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Natera from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Natera from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Natera from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Natera from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Natera from $220.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $235.29.

Natera Company Profile

Natera is a global diagnostics company that develops and commercializes cell-free DNA and other genetic testing technologies for clinical applications. The company focuses on three principal areas: reproductive health (including non-invasive prenatal testing and carrier screening), oncology (tumor-informed assays for minimal residual disease and recurrence monitoring), and organ transplantation (cell-free DNA tests to detect allograft injury). Natera combines laboratory testing, proprietary bioinformatics, and clinical reporting to deliver personalized genetic information to clinicians and patients.

Key product offerings include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for fetal chromosomal abnormalities and select single-gene conditions; Horizon carrier screening for inherited conditions; Signatera, a personalized, tumor-informed assay used for detecting minimal residual disease and monitoring treatment response in cancer patients; and Prospera, a donor-derived cell-free DNA test used to assess the risk of organ rejection.