Insider Selling: Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) Insider Sells $82,270.08 in Stock

Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 16,928 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.86, for a total value of $82,270.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 457,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,223,270.18. This trade represents a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Los Pinos Elisabet De also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, October 29th, Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 9,049 shares of Aura Biosciences stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.35, for a total transaction of $57,461.15.

Aura Biosciences Trading Up 4.7%

Aura Biosciences stock opened at $5.74 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $5.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.12. Aura Biosciences, Inc. has a 12-month low of $4.34 and a 12-month high of $8.27. The stock has a market cap of $364.49 million, a P/E ratio of -2.96 and a beta of 0.46.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The company reported ($0.40) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by $0.06. As a group, analysts forecast that Aura Biosciences, Inc. will post -1.66 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aura Biosciences

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 49.3% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 24.3% during the second quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 12,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 2,434 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 12.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 2,693 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 5.5% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 69,037 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630 shares during the period. Finally, Acorn Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 0.9% in the second quarter. Acorn Capital Advisors LLC now owns 595,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,729,000 after purchasing an additional 5,236 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.75% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AURA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Aura Biosciences in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.50.

Aura Biosciences Company Profile

Aura Biosciences is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel virus‐like particle (VLP) therapies for the treatment of cancer. By combining proprietary VLP technology with photoactivatable dyes, Aura aims to deliver highly selective photodynamic therapies that target and destroy tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. The company’s platform is designed to address solid tumors in both ophthalmic and non‐ophthalmic settings, leveraging precision activation via near‐infrared light to induce localized tumor cell apoptosis and stimulate anti‐tumor immune responses.

The lead product candidate, AU-011, is being evaluated in patients with choroidal melanoma, a rare but potentially sight-threatening eye cancer.