Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Receives Consensus Rating of "Buy" from Analysts

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Buy" from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $4.50.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on NKTR shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Nektar Therapeutics from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $1.00 to $2.00 in a research report on Friday, April 11th. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and set a $6.50 target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Oppenheimer raised Nektar Therapeutics from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $6.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nektar Therapeutics from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, William Blair reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, May 12th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nantahala Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 90.0% in the fourth quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC now owns 7,810,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $7,263,000 after buying an additional 3,700,000 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $4,961,000 after buying an additional 100,645 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP increased its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 187.3% in the fourth quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 4,974,512 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $4,626,000 after buying an additional 3,242,841 shares during the period. Almitas Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 401.1% in the first quarter. Almitas Capital LLC now owns 4,610,872 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $3,135,000 after buying an additional 3,690,647 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Nektar Therapeutics by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,910,786 shares of the biopharmaceutical company's stock valued at $3,637,000 after buying an additional 583,153 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.88% of the company's stock.

Nektar Therapeutics Price Performance

NKTR traded down $0.01 on Monday, hitting $0.65. 1,051,046 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,843,761. Nektar Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $0.43 and a 12 month high of $1.71. The business has a 50-day moving average of $0.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of $0.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $121.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.78 and a beta of 0.62.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($0.04). Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 173.28% and a negative net margin of 180.70%. The firm had revenue of $10.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.61 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.18) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Nektar Therapeutics will post -0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.