Proficio Capital Partners LLC Purchases New Holdings in Natera, Inc. $NTRA

Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,272 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $617,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NTRA. Trust Co. of Vermont acquired a new stake in shares of Natera during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Natera in the second quarter valued at $30,000. Reflection Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Natera in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Natera in the second quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Palladiem LLC bought a new position in Natera in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors own 99.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on NTRA. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Natera from $220.00 to $284.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Natera in a report on Monday, July 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Natera from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Natera in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Natera from $315.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $319.38.

Natera Price Performance

Shares of NTRA stock opened at $338.70 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $283.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $232.96. The firm has a market cap of $48.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -249.04 and a beta of 1.51. Natera, Inc. has a one year low of $157.43 and a one year high of $343.18.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The medical research company reported ($0.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $752.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $661.24 million. Natera had a negative return on equity of 11.38% and a negative net margin of 7.11%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.74) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Natera, Inc. will post -1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Steven Leonard Chapman sold 3,076 shares of Natera stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $266.39, for a total transaction of $819,415.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 99,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,611,561.83. This trade represents a 2.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider John Fesko sold 295 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $267.99, for a total transaction of $79,057.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 183,774 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,249,594.26. This trade represents a 0.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 177,955 shares of company stock worth $40,704,193 in the last quarter. 5.05% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Natera 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.