HC Wainwright Reaffirms Buy Rating for Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $185.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price suggests a potential upside of 344.59% from the stock’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. TD Cowen upgraded Nektar Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, August 28th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $178.00 price target on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Wedbush reduced their price objective on Nektar Therapeutics from $80.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on Nektar Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $153.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nektar Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $138.50.

Nektar Therapeutics Stock Down 4.5%

NKTR traded down $1.97 on Friday, reaching $41.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 394,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,085,252. The company has a market capitalization of $1.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.21 and a beta of 1.26. Nektar Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $33.40 and a fifty-two week high of $109.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $69.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $71.05.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last issued 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 business had revenue of $10.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.43 million. Nektar Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 287.84% and a negative return on equity of 37.87%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Nektar Therapeutics will post -8.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Nektar Therapeutics

In other Nektar Therapeutics news, CEO Howard Robin sold 418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 54,627 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,932,051.46. The trade was a 0.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders own 2.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Two Seas Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,506,000. Armistice Capital LLC lifted its stake in Nektar Therapeutics by 122.4% in the 4th quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 596,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $25,199,000 after buying an additional 328,000 shares in the last quarter. Sofinnova Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 270.4% during the fourth quarter. Sofinnova Investments Inc. now owns 438,630 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $18,545,000 after acquiring an additional 320,211 shares during the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL raised its position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 22.2% in the fourth quarter. BVF Inc. IL now owns 1,559,595 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,940,000 after buying an additional 283,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Orbimed Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Nektar Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $19,786,000. 75.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nektar Therapeutics Company Profile

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.