Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Upgraded by Evercore to Strong-Buy Rating

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) was upgraded by Evercore to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen cut Nkarta from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on Nkarta from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $10.75.

Nkarta Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NKTX opened at $2.68 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $191.73 million, a P/E ratio of -2.00 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $2.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.23. Nkarta has a 52-week low of $1.63 and a 52-week high of $3.65.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.02. Analysts predict that Nkarta will post -1.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NKTX. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 478.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 69,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 57,399 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 300.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 672,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,237,000 after buying an additional 504,272 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 13.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 681,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,000 after buying an additional 80,211 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 118.7% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 134,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,000 after buying an additional 852,559 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position 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 during the period. 80.54% of the stock is 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.