Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.05 EPS

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.32) by ($0.05), FiscalAI reports.

Nkarta Trading Up 3.9%

Shares of NKTX stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $2.13. 414,186 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 766,559. Nkarta has a 1 year low of $1.31 and a 1 year high of $2.81. The firm has a market cap of $151.29 million, a PE ratio of -1.54 and a beta of 0.47. The company’s 50 day moving average is $2.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $2.10.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on NKTX shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Nkarta currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.25.

Insider Activity at Nkarta

In related news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of Nkarta stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total transaction of $53,915.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 390,023 shares in the company, valued at $807,347.61. The trade was a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 8.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NKTX. GSK plc purchased a new position in Nkarta during the fourth quarter valued at $5,829,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 48.6% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,702,022 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,149,000 after buying an additional 556,945 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 worth $2,006,000 after buying an additional 10,065 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Nkarta by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,169,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,163,000 after buying an additional 21,241 shares during the period. Finally, AWM Investment Company Inc. increased its stake in shares of Nkarta by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. AWM Investment Company Inc. now owns 906,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,676,000 after acquiring an additional 106,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.