Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Stock Price Expected to Rise, HC Wainwright Analyst Says

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) had its price objective boosted by equities research analysts at HC Wainwright to $120.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price target points to a potential upside of 390.80% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $30.00 in a report on Friday, April 11th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.43.

Nektar Therapeutics Price Performance

NKTR traded up $14.91 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $24.45. The company had a trading volume of 36,999,308 shares, compared to its average volume of 296,352. The company has a market cap of $303.42 million, a PE ratio of -2.55 and a beta of 0.55. Nektar Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $6.48 and a 1-year high of $27.41. The business has a 50-day moving average of $10.39 and a 200-day moving average of $11.93.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($3.30) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.70) by ($0.60). Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 329.54% and a negative net margin of 152.49%. The company had revenue of $10.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.61 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($2.70) EPS. Research analysts forecast that Nektar Therapeutics will post -0.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 46.8% during the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 266,773 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $181,000 after acquiring an additional 85,094 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 23.3% during the first quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 221,761 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $151,000 after acquiring an additional 41,948 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Nektar Therapeutics by 1.4% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 7,301,734 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $4,961,000 after buying an additional 100,645 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC acquired a new position in Nektar Therapeutics in the first quarter worth approximately $344,000. Finally, Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Nektar Therapeutics in the first quarter worth approximately $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.88% of the company’s stock.

About Nektar Therapeutics

Nektar Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering and developing medicines in the field of immunotherapy in the United States and internationally. The company is developing rezpegaldesleukin, a cytokine Treg stimulant that is in phase 2 clinical trial for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus and ulcerative colitis, as well as phase 2b clinical trial to treat atopic dermatitis and psoriasis; and NKTR-255, an IL-15 receptor agonist, which is in phase 1 clinical trial to boost the immune system's natural ability to fight cancer.