Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Earns “Buy” Rating from HC Wainwright

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $185.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price target points to a potential upside of 338.86% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, August 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group assumed coverage on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $153.00 price target for the company. TD Cowen raised shares of Nektar Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, August 21st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wedbush lowered their target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $80.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Nektar Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $138.50.

Nektar Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NKTR traded down $1.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $42.16. The stock had a trading volume of 708,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,086,730. The company has a 50 day moving average of $69.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.05. Nektar Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $33.40 and a twelve month high of $109.00. The firm has a market cap of $1.44 billion, a PE ratio of -6.24 and a beta of 1.26.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.23) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.97) by $0.74. The firm had revenue of $10.13 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.43 million. Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 37.87% and a negative net margin of 287.84%. Equities research analysts predict that Nektar Therapeutics will post -8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Nektar Therapeutics

In other Nektar Therapeutics news, CEO Howard Robin sold 418 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.98, for a total transaction of $30,087.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 54,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,932,051.46. This trade represents a 0.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Company insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nektar Therapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Two Seas Capital LP purchased a new position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at $31,506,000. Armistice Capital LLC grew its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics by 122.4% during the 4th quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 596,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $25,199,000 after purchasing an additional 328,000 shares in the last quarter. Sofinnova Investments Inc. grew its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics by 270.4% during the 4th quarter. Sofinnova Investments Inc. now owns 438,630 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $18,545,000 after purchasing an additional 320,211 shares in the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL grew its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics by 22.2% during the 4th quarter. BVF Inc. IL now owns 1,559,595 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,940,000 after purchasing an additional 283,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orbimed Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Nektar Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at $19,786,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.88% of the company’s stock.

About Nektar Therapeutics

Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing medicines that use the body’s immune system to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company’s research programs are based on proprietary drug-design and immunology technologies intended to improve the activity, targeting, or dosing of therapeutic agents.

Nektar’s pipeline has included NKTR-255, an investigational interleukin-15 receptor agonist designed to activate natural killer cells and support antitumor immune responses.