Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Rating Lowered to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) from a "hold" to a "sell," even though the Street consensus remains a "Hold" with an average target price of $12.00.
• Nkarta reported Q1 EPS of ($0.37), missing the ($0.32) estimate and with analysts forecasting roughly -1.7 EPS for the year; the stock trades near $2.06 with a market cap of about $153 million and a 52-week range of $1.42–$2.81.
• CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares at $2.07 (a 6.26% reduction in his stake); insiders own 8.40% of the company while institutional investors hold roughly 80.54%.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

NKTX has been the subject of a number of other reports. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Nkarta from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $12.00.

Nkarta Price Performance

Shares of NKTX opened at $2.06 on Friday. Nkarta has a 1 year low of $1.42 and a 1 year high of $2.81. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.10. The firm has a market cap of $153.04 million, a P/E ratio of -1.47 and a beta of 0.47.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.32) by ($0.05). On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nkarta will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total value of $53,915.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 390,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $807,347.61. This represents a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 8.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Nkarta

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NKTX. Peapod Lane Capital LLC lifted its stake in Nkarta by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC now owns 676,199 shares of the company's stock worth $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 4,933 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Nkarta by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,663 shares of the company's stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 6,141 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 4.0% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 231,081 shares of the company's stock valued at $384,000 after acquiring an additional 8,968 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,006,000 after buying an additional 10,065 shares during the period. Finally, Samalin Investment Counsel LLC boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC now owns 150,235 shares of the company's stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 10,070 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.54% of the company's stock.

About Nkarta

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.