Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Needham & Company LLC Analyst Says

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) had its price target increased by analysts at Needham & Company LLC from $10.00 to $11.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 433.98% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.00.

Nkarta Trading Down 3.7%

NKTX opened at $2.06 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $2.10. The company has a market cap of $153.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.47 and a beta of 0.47. Nkarta has a 12-month low of $1.42 and a 12-month high of $2.81.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($0.05). On average, analysts predict that Nkarta will post -1.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of Nkarta stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 390,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,347.61. The trade was a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 8.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GSK plc bought a new stake in shares of Nkarta during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,829,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM lifted its stake in shares of Nkarta by 29.2% in the 4th quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 2,546,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,712,000 after purchasing an additional 576,022 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 48.6% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,702,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,149,000 after buying an additional 556,945 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% in the second 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 last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Nkarta by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,169,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,163,000 after buying an additional 21,241 shares during the period. 80.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.