Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Upgraded by Evercore to Strong-Buy Rating

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) was upgraded by stock analysts at Evercore to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nkarta from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Nkarta from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 target price on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Friday, March 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.75.

Nkarta Stock Performance

Shares of NKTX opened at $2.68 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $2.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $2.23. Nkarta has a 52-week low of $1.63 and a 52-week high of $3.65. The company has a market cap of $191.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.00 and a beta of 0.88.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by $0.02. As a group, research analysts predict that Nkarta will post -1.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Nkarta in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Rangeley Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Nkarta by 112.0% during the first quarter. Rangeley Capital LLC now owns 68,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,000 after buying an additional 35,922 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Nkarta by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,732,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,655,000 after buying an additional 30,350 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Nkarta by 74.9% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 40,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $84,000 after buying an additional 17,148 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Nkarta by 74.4% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 346,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $731,000 after acquiring an additional 147,894 shares during the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Nkarta Company Profile

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.