Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Upgraded to Strong-Buy at TD Cowen

TD Cowen upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on ATRA. Weiss Ratings upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 price objective on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Atara Biotherapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of ATRA opened at $9.46 on Monday. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 52 week low of $3.92 and a 52 week high of $19.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.98 million, a P/E ratio of -8.02 and a beta of 0.12. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.47.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.32). Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 79.12% and a negative net margin of 269.42%.The firm had revenue of $0.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.55 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Atara Biotherapeutics will post -0.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Atara Biotherapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 203,438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,915,000 after purchasing an additional 12,677 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 148,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,689,000 after purchasing an additional 32,836 shares during the last quarter. Globeflex Capital L P boosted its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 399.6% in the fourth quarter. Globeflex Capital L P now owns 77,224 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,397,000 after buying an additional 61,766 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 183.5% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 63,816 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after buying an additional 41,302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 60,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $464,000 after buying an additional 1,457 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.90% of the company’s stock.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.