Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) Shares Down 7% After Insider Selling

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR)’s share price fell 7% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $6.82 and last traded at $6.9040. 8,416,378 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 60% from the average session volume of 21,001,963 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.42.

Specifically, Director Reid Hoffman sold 347,646 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.51, for a total transaction of $2,610,821.46. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 60,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $451,486.18. This represents a 85.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Reid Hoffman sold 5,498,487 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.81, for a total value of $42,943,183.47. Following the sale, the director directly owned 77,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $605,275. This trade represents a 98.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AUR shares. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Aurora Innovation from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Aurora Innovation from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Aurora Innovation from $4.70 to $7.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aurora Innovation has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.50.

Aurora Innovation Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $5.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.65. The stock has a market cap of $14.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.30 and a beta of 2.58.

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.97 million. Aurora Innovation had a negative net margin of 20,775.00% and a negative return on equity of 40.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 66.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Aurora Innovation, Inc. will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AUR. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 35.7% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 227,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,530,000 after purchasing an additional 59,801 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 9.4% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 166,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,118,000 after purchasing an additional 14,220 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 6.7% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 2,046,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,764,000 after purchasing an additional 127,953 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 9.2% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 32,868 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,000 after purchasing an additional 2,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 66.5% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 112,351 shares of the company’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 44,867 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 44.71% of the company’s stock.

About Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company’s core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.