Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $10.75.

A number of analysts recently commented on NKTX shares. Mizuho decreased their price objective on Nkarta from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Evercore set a $9.00 target price on shares of Nkarta in a report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Nkarta in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nkarta from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th.

Nkarta Stock Performance

NKTX stock opened at $2.58 on Wednesday. Nkarta has a 1 year low of $1.70 and a 1 year high of $3.72. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $2.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.56. The firm has a market cap of $184.59 million, a P/E ratio of -1.93 and a beta of 0.90.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by $0.02. On average, research analysts predict that Nkarta will post -1.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Nkarta

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Nkarta by 478.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 69,396 shares of the company’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 57,399 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 300.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 672,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,237,000 after purchasing an additional 504,272 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 13.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 681,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,000 after purchasing an additional 80,211 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 118.7% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 134,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,000 after purchasing an additional 852,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,006,000 after purchasing an additional 10,065 shares during the period. 80.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nkarta Company Profile

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Leveraging proprietary activation and expansion technologies, Nkarta aims to harness the innate tumor-killing properties of NK cells while incorporating targeted immuno-engineering approaches to enhance safety, potency and persistence in patients. The company’s platform supports both allogeneic cell manufacturing and genetic modifications to generate chimeric antigen receptor-expressing NK cell candidates designed to address a range of hematologic and solid tumors.

Nkarta’s lead program, NKX019, is an anti-CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy in early-phase clinical trials for relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies.