Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR – Get Rating) in a research note published on Thursday. The firm issued a hold rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on NKTR. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $5.00 to $3.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 6th. SVB Leerink dropped their target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $5.00 to $3.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 24th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a hold rating to an underperform rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $3.20 to $1.50 in a research report on Friday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $3.00 to $2.00 and set a sell rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 27th. Finally, SVB Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Nektar Therapeutics from $5.00 to $3.00 in a report on Friday, February 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $3.08.

Nektar Therapeutics Trading Down 12.5 %

NASDAQ NKTR opened at $0.98 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $2.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.91. Nektar Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $0.96 and a 52 week high of $6.40.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by $0.11. The company had revenue of $22.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.21 million. Nektar Therapeutics had a negative net margin of 399.98% and a negative return on equity of 76.92%. Nektar Therapeutics’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.79) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Nektar Therapeutics will post -0.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Howard W. Robin sold 19,635 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total value of $58,905.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 960,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,880,474. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Jonathan Zalevsky sold 10,484 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total transaction of $31,452.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 303,179 shares in the company, valued at $909,537. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Howard W. Robin sold 19,635 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.00, for a total transaction of $58,905.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 960,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,880,474. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 40,386 shares of company stock valued at $121,158 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.38% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Nektar Therapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NKTR. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Nektar Therapeutics by 5.2% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,790,742 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $9,652,000 after buying an additional 88,042 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers grew its position in Nektar Therapeutics by 2.1% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 441,771 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,381,000 after buying an additional 9,090 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics by 14.1% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 159,106 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $858,000 after purchasing an additional 19,617 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics by 29.1% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,002,601 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $10,795,000 after purchasing an additional 451,433 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Nektar Therapeutics by 5.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,430,385 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $104,729,000 after purchasing an additional 918,474 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.30% of the company’s stock.

Nektar Therapeutics Company Profile

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Nektar Therapeutics is a research-based biopharmaceutical company which engages in discovering and developing medicines in areas of unmet medical need. Its research and development pipeline of new investigational drugs includes therapies for oncology, immunology and virology. The firm focuses on using new chemistry approaches to make medicines to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.