Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Given "Buy" Rating at Needham & Company LLC

Key Points

• Needham reaffirmed its Buy rating on Nkarta. Across analysts, the stock has a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $11.20, though ratings include both Buy and Sell calls.
• Nkarta shares traded at $1.52, down $0.20 that day, with a market capitalization of about $109 million.
• The company reported a quarterly loss of $0.45 per share, missing analysts’ $0.40-per-share loss estimate.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports.

NKTX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Nkarta from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Nkarta from a "sell" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 15th. Finally, HC Wainwright assumed coverage on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $11.20.

Nkarta Price Performance

NASDAQ NKTX traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $1.52. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,749,386 shares, compared to its average volume of 802,766. The firm has a market capitalization of $109.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.85 and a beta of 1.24. Nkarta has a 1-year low of $1.13 and a 1-year high of $3.72. The company's 50-day moving average is $2.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.51.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.40) by ($0.05). Equities analysts forecast that Nkarta will post -1.60 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Nkarta

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Nkarta during the second quarter worth about $17,830,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM acquired a new stake in Nkarta in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,717,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Nkarta by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,732,372 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,655,000 after acquiring an additional 30,350 shares during the last quarter. AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new stake in Nkarta in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,564,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Nkarta by 74.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 346,593 shares of the company's stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 147,894 shares in the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company's platform is designed to produce allogeneic, or donor-derived, NK cells that can be engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to recognize and attack targeted cells.

Nkarta's research and development programs have included NKX019, a CD19-targeted CAR NK-cell therapy investigated for B-cell malignancies and autoimmune disorders, and NKX101, an NKG2D-targeted CAR NK-cell therapy developed for certain solid tumors.

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