Analysts Set Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) PT at $13.25

Shares of Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $13.25.

Several research firms have issued reports on NKTX. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Nkarta from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Wall Street Zen raised Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a report on Monday, December 29th.

Nkarta Stock Performance

Shares of Nkarta stock opened at $2.49 on Wednesday. Nkarta has a one year low of $1.31 and a one year high of $2.74. The company has a market cap of $176.86 million, a P/E ratio of -1.80 and a beta of 0.60. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $1.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.04.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by $0.03. As a group, equities analysts predict that Nkarta will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Nkarta news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total value of $53,915.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 390,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $807,347.61. This trade represents a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 8.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Nkarta by 478.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 69,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 57,399 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Nkarta by 300.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 672,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,237,000 after buying an additional 504,272 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Nkarta by 13.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 681,068 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,253,000 after buying an additional 80,211 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Nkarta by 118.7% during the 1st 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 last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 23.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 34,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 6,601 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.54% of the company’s stock.

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.