Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Given “Buy” Rating at BTIG Research

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at BTIG Research in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $178.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price target suggests a potential upside of 369.41% from the company’s current price.

NKTR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, August 21st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $65.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, October 9th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Nektar Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 price target on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price target on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $80.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued 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 target price of $130.67.

Nektar Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NKTR opened at $37.92 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.66 and a beta of 1.26. Nektar Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $33.40 and a 1 year high of $109.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.41.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 13th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.23) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.97) by $0.74. Nektar Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 287.84% and a negative return on equity of 37.87%. The business had revenue of $10.13 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.43 million. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nektar Therapeutics will post -8.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Nektar Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Howard Robin sold 418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.98, for a total transaction of $30,087.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 54,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,932,051.46. The trade was a 0.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Two Seas Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 8.2% during the third quarter. Two Seas Capital LP now owns 3,345,978 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $202,582,000 after purchasing an additional 253,744 shares in the last quarter. BVF Inc. IL increased its position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. BVF Inc. IL now owns 1,559,595 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $65,940,000 after acquiring an additional 283,000 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP increased its position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 112.7% during the second quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 473,617 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $33,063,000 after acquiring an additional 250,916 shares during the last quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 2.7% during the first quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 394,604 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $28,392,000 after acquiring an additional 10,262 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Armistice Capital LLC grew its position in Nektar Therapeutics by 122.4% during the fourth 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 during the period. 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.