Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) Short Interest Update

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totaling 546,470 shares, a growth of 78.5% from the April 30th total of 306,093 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,386,437 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.1 days. Currently, 10.3% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ATRA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a report on Friday, March 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 price target on Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

Atara Biotherapeutics stock opened at $9.63 on Thursday. Atara Biotherapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $3.92 and a fifty-two week high of $19.15. The company has a market capitalization of $86.77 million, a P/E ratio of -14.37 and a beta of 0.11. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $6.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.79.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.04. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 79.12% and a negative net margin of 40.91%.The firm had revenue of $0.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Atara Biotherapeutics will post 0.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 313,446 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total transaction of $3,165,804.60. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,011,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,211,100. This represents a 23.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,241 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.13, for a total value of $47,850.33. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 137,837 shares in the company, valued at $1,258,451.81. This represents a 3.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 321,101 shares of company stock worth $3,235,695 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 41.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ATRA. Globeflex Capital L P increased its position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 399.6% in the fourth quarter. Globeflex Capital L P now owns 77,224 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,397,000 after buying an additional 61,766 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $327,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 183.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 63,816 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after buying an additional 41,302 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 133.5% in the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 32,691 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $591,000 after buying an additional 18,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 203,438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,915,000 after buying an additional 12,677 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.90% of the company’s stock.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.