Insider Selling: Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Insider Sells 84,929 Shares

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) insider Mollie Leoni sold 84,929 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.82, for a total transaction of $834,002.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 182,345 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,790,627.90. This trade represents a 31.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Kura Oncology Price Performance

KURA traded up $0.43 on Monday, reaching $10.36. The company had a trading volume of 1,383,021 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,581,991. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 6.14 and a current ratio of 6.15. Kura Oncology, Inc. has a 52-week low of $5.45 and a 52-week high of $12.49. The company has a market cap of $919.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.09 and a beta of 0.36. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.23.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.83) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.88) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $18.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.97 million. Kura Oncology had a negative net margin of 411.19% and a negative return on equity of 141.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kura Oncology, Inc. will post -3.47 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kura Oncology

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Kura Oncology by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,931,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587,959 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in Kura Oncology by 101.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,224,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,121,228 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 111.6% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,830,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,020,000 after purchasing an additional 965,256 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 36.6% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,062,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,816,000 after purchasing an additional 820,020 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted 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 valued at $11,032,000 after purchasing an additional 738,761 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on KURA. Oppenheimer set a $24.00 price target on Kura Oncology in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $24.00 price objective on Kura Oncology in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $24.00 price objective on Kura Oncology in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $24.00 price objective on Kura Oncology in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.46.

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.