Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA) from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on TARA. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Protara Therapeutics from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Protara Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Protara Therapeutics from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Protara Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating on shares of Protara Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.25.

Protara Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TARA opened at $3.98 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $4.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.99. Protara Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $2.97 and a 1 year high of $7.82. The company has a market capitalization of $235.22 million, a P/E ratio of -2.95 and a beta of 1.50.

Protara Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TARA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 11th. The company reported ($0.36) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by ($0.03). On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Protara Therapeutics will post -1.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Protara Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TARA. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Protara Therapeutics by 1.3% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,207,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,155,000 after purchasing an additional 65,395 shares in the last quarter. Velan Capital Investment Management LP raised its holdings in Protara Therapeutics by 32.5% in the 4th quarter. Velan Capital Investment Management LP now owns 2,834,652 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,109,000 after buying an additional 695,652 shares during the last quarter. Integral Health Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Protara Therapeutics by 60.7% in the 4th quarter. Integral Health Asset Management LLC now owns 2,250,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,992,000 after buying an additional 850,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Protara Therapeutics by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,904,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,283,000 after buying an additional 102,176 shares during the period. Finally, AIGH Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Protara Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $8,454,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 38.13% of the company’s stock.

About Protara Therapeutics

Protara Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies for virus-driven cancers. The company’s primary areas of research include human papillomavirus (HPV)–associated malignancies, where it seeks to harness and enhance the body’s immune response to target tumor cells. Protara’s therapeutic strategy combines antigen-specific vaccination approaches with modulators of T-cell activation to improve clinical outcomes in patients with HPV-mediated disease.

Protara’s lead immunotherapy candidate is PTX-35, an investigational monoclonal antibody designed to agonize OX40, a co-stimulatory receptor on T cells.