Insider Selling: Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) CEO Sells 902 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• CEO sale: Steven Leonard Chapman sold 902 Natera shares on May 1 at an average price of $206.16 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5‑1 plan to cover tax withholding, leaving him with 149,867 shares (about $30.9M), a 0.60% ownership reduction.
• The May 1 sale is part of a string of insider disposals this year—5,838 shares on Apr 27, 5,623 on Mar 10 and 3,950 on Mar 2—totaling roughly $3.13M in earlier transactions.
• Natera traded down about 2.3% to $206.77; the company beat last quarter's EPS and revenue estimates but remains unprofitable, and analysts maintain a consensus Moderate Buy with a $253.47 target.

Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA - Get Free Report) CEO Steven Leonard Chapman sold 902 shares of Natera stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.16, for a total transaction of $185,956.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 149,867 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,896,580.72. This represents a 0.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Steven Leonard Chapman also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, April 27th, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 5,838 shares of Natera stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.14, for a total transaction of $1,191,769.32.
• On Tuesday, March 10th, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 5,623 shares of Natera stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.13, for a total transaction of $1,147,822.99.
• On Monday, March 2nd, Steven Leonard Chapman sold 3,950 shares of Natera stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.02, for a total transaction of $790,079.00.

Natera Trading Down 2.3%

NASDAQ:NTRA traded down $4.79 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $206.77. The stock had a trading volume of 1,065,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,321,366. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -135.14 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $201.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $214.51. Natera, Inc. has a 52 week low of $131.81 and a 52 week high of $256.36.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The medical research company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by $0.81. The firm had revenue of $665.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $600.68 million. Natera had a negative net margin of 9.03% and a negative return on equity of 15.28%. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.41) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Natera, Inc. will post -1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Natera

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Robinhood Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Natera in the 4th quarter worth approximately $12,981,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Natera by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 11,628,914 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,871,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,129 shares in the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Natera in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,096,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Natera by 63.2% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 148,247 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $23,863,000 after purchasing an additional 57,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Natera in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,323,000. 99.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on NTRA. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Natera from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Guggenheim boosted their price target on shares of Natera from $230.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Natera in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. They set a "buy" rating and a $300.00 price target on the stock. William Blair began coverage on shares of Natera in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Natera from $239.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Natera currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $253.47.

About Natera

Natera is a global diagnostics company that develops and commercializes cell-free DNA and other genetic testing technologies for clinical applications. The company focuses on three principal areas: reproductive health (including non-invasive prenatal testing and carrier screening), oncology (tumor-informed assays for minimal residual disease and recurrence monitoring), and organ transplantation (cell-free DNA tests to detect allograft injury). Natera combines laboratory testing, proprietary bioinformatics, and clinical reporting to deliver personalized genetic information to clinicians and patients.

Key product offerings include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for fetal chromosomal abnormalities and select single-gene conditions; Horizon carrier screening for inherited conditions; Signatera, a personalized, tumor-informed assay used for detecting minimal residual disease and monitoring treatment response in cancer patients; and Prospera, a donor-derived cell-free DNA test used to assess the risk of organ rejection.

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