Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.15) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by ($0.02), FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $1.22 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.80 million.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ATRA traded down $0.08 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $8.10. The stock had a trading volume of 33,145 shares, compared to its average volume of 556,640. Atara Biotherapeutics has a twelve month low of $3.92 and a twelve month high of $19.15. The stock has a market cap of $81.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.86 and a beta of 0.28. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.78.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Atara Biotherapeutics news, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,062 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.08, for a total value of $40,900.96. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 132,775 shares in the company, valued at $1,072,822. This represents a 3.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Brian Cherry acquired 104,166 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $9.60 per share, for a total transaction of $999,993.60. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 166,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,598,265.60. This trade represents a 167.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 41.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ATRA shares. Wall Street Zen raised Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing allogeneic T-cell immunotherapies for cancer and serious diseases associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The company’s platform uses donor-derived, virus-specific T cells that are designed to recognize and eliminate infected or malignant cells without requiring cells to be collected from each individual patient. Atara’s lead product, tabelecleucel, is marketed in the European Union under the brand name Ebvallo. The therapy is approved for certain adults and children with EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, a rare and potentially life-threatening complication that can occur after organ or stem-cell transplantation.