Anhco Nguyen Sells 5,062 Shares of Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Stock

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,062 shares of Atara Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.08, for a total transaction of $40,900.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 132,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,072,822. The trade was a 3.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of ATRA stock opened at $9.25 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $7.57. Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $3.92 and a twelve month high of $19.15. The company has a market capitalization of $92.87 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 0.12.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32). Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 79.12% and a negative net margin of 269.42%.The firm had revenue of $0.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.55 million. On average, analysts forecast that Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. will post -0.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Atara Biotherapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ATRA. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 60,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $464,000 after buying an additional 1,457 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 20,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 3,779 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics during the second quarter worth about $31,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new position in Atara Biotherapeutics during the fourth quarter valued at about $181,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 58.6% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 30,040 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $543,000 after acquiring an additional 11,104 shares during the period. 70.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ATRA shares. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 target price on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. TD Cowen raised Atara Biotherapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. Weiss Ratings raised Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Atara Biotherapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.50.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.