Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) Issues Earnings Results

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by $0.06, FiscalAI reports.

Aura Biosciences Price Performance

Shares of Aura Biosciences stock opened at $6.27 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $398.15 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.23 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $5.82 and its 200-day moving average is $5.86. Aura Biosciences has a one year low of $4.34 and a one year high of $7.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Conor Kilroy sold 12,079 shares of Aura Biosciences stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.05, for a total value of $60,998.95. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 167,234 shares in the company, valued at $844,531.70. This trade represents a 6.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Janet Jill Hopkins sold 20,401 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.06, for a total transaction of $103,229.06. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 232,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,175,357.04. This represents a 8.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 123,076 shares of company stock worth $618,783 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aura Biosciences

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 16.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,890,503 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,863,000 after acquiring an additional 413,001 shares during the last quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Aura Biosciences by 67.1% in the second quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC now owns 2,117,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,257,000 after purchasing an additional 850,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 926,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47,663 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 896,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,542,000 after purchasing an additional 5,783 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 233.3% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 617,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,364,000 after purchasing an additional 432,117 shares in the last quarter. 96.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.