Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and seven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $12.2222.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Aurora Innovation from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a report on Friday, July 17th. Northland Securities began coverage on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research report on Friday, May 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on Aurora Innovation from $4.70 to $7.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th.

Aurora Innovation Stock Performance

NASDAQ AUR opened at $5.85 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $6.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.72 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.45 and a beta of 2.63. Aurora Innovation has a fifty-two week low of $3.60 and a fifty-two week high of $8.56.

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by ($0.02). Aurora Innovation had a negative net margin of 18,000.00% and a negative return on equity of 43.94%. The company had revenue of $2.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.66 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.11) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 100.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aurora Innovation will post -0.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aurora Innovation

In other news, Director Michelangelo Volpi sold 2,842,682 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.00, for a total value of $19,898,774.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David M. Wehner purchased 82,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $6.04 per share, with a total value of $498,300.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 246,519 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,488,974.76. This trade represents a 50.30% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,390,753 shares of company stock valued at $44,826,378. 8.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Aurora Innovation by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,567,323 shares of the company’s stock worth $616,579,000 after buying an additional 17,818,179 shares during the period. DNB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 93.0% in the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 1,037,510 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,984,000 after buying an additional 499,935 shares during the period. Clare Market Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aurora Innovation in the 1st quarter valued at $2,697,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Aurora Innovation by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 274,809,541 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,055,269,000 after acquiring an additional 16,933,373 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Aurora Innovation by 130.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 30,036,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,749,000 after acquiring an additional 16,975,927 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 44.71% of the company’s stock.

About Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company’s core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.