Francis Burrows Sells 23,726 Shares of Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Stock

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) insider Francis Burrows sold 23,726 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.78, for a total value of $232,040.28. Following the sale, the insider owned 33,735 shares in the company, valued at $329,928.30. The trade was a 41.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Kura Oncology Stock Performance

Kura Oncology stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $9.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,072,614 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,608,468. The company has a current ratio of 5.12, a quick ratio of 5.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. Kura Oncology, Inc. has a twelve month low of $5.41 and a twelve month high of $12.49. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $10.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.34. The firm has a market cap of $856.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.97 and a beta of 0.21.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.85) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.57) by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $20.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.48 million. Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 65.42% and a negative net margin of 208.48%. Sell-side analysts predict that Kura Oncology, Inc. will post -2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on KURA. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Friday, December 5th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Friday, November 14th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 price target (up previously from $36.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $28.00 price target (up previously from $11.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Monday, November 24th. Finally, Guggenheim assumed coverage on Kura Oncology in a report on Thursday, September 4th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.57.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BVF Inc. IL lifted its holdings in Kura Oncology by 202.0% in the 1st quarter. BVF Inc. IL now owns 7,754,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,177,000 after acquiring an additional 5,186,660 shares during the last quarter. EcoR1 Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 59.1% in the 2nd quarter. EcoR1 Capital LLC now owns 4,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,559,702 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in Kura Oncology by 101.6% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,224,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121,228 shares during the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Kura Oncology by 13.3% during the first quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 6,572,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,375,000 after buying an additional 772,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its position in Kura Oncology by 63.0% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,911,886 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,032,000 after buying an additional 738,761 shares during the last quarter.

About Kura Oncology

Kura Oncology, Inc (NASDAQ: KURA) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted oncology therapies. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the company leverages expertise in molecular biology and precision medicine to identify key drivers of cancer growth and design small-molecule inhibitors that block those pathways. Kura’s research platform integrates genomic insights with medicinal chemistry to advance candidates against well-validated targets in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s lead clinical candidate, tipifarnib, is a farnesyltransferase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and various non-small cell lung cancers.