Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Trading 7.9% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA)’s share price shot up 7.9% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $9.49 and last traded at $9.6660. 1,227,656 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 14% from the average session volume of 1,420,780 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.96.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on KURA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wedbush decreased their target price on Kura Oncology from $38.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Kura Oncology from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Wall Street Zen raised Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Zacks Research raised Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.38.

Kura Oncology Trading Up 11.6%

The company has a market capitalization of $887.83 million, a P/E ratio of -2.99 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 6.15 and a quick ratio of 6.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $8.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.44.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.83) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.88) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $18.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.97 million. Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 141.95% and a negative net margin of 411.19%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Kura Oncology, Inc. will post -3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kura Oncology

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 115.3% during the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 2,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,284 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 392.8% during the third quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 3,072 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 59.9% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 4,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,553 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 127.2% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 3,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 471.3% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 9,958 shares in the last quarter.

Kura Oncology Company Profile

Kura Oncology, Inc (NASDAQ: KURA) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted oncology therapies. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the company leverages expertise in molecular biology and precision medicine to identify key drivers of cancer growth and design small-molecule inhibitors that block those pathways. Kura’s research platform integrates genomic insights with medicinal chemistry to advance candidates against well-validated targets in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s lead clinical candidate, tipifarnib, is a farnesyltransferase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and various non-small cell lung cancers.