Natera, Inc. $NTRA Stock Position Trimmed by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp trimmed its position in shares of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) by 11.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 74,780 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 9,262 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Natera were worth $20,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Trust Co. of Vermont acquired a new stake in shares of Natera in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Reflection Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Natera during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Natera in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Palladiem LLC bought a new position in Natera in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Natera in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 99.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTRA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Natera from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Natera from $315.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird set a $348.00 target price on shares of Natera in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Guggenheim upped their price target on shares of Natera from $290.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Natera in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Natera presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $319.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Herm Rosenman sold 16,530 shares of Natera stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total value of $4,132,500.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,062,500. This trade represents a 79.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider John Fesko sold 6,517 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $321.53, for a total transaction of $2,095,411.01. Following the sale, the insider owned 197,257 shares in the company, valued at $63,424,043.21. This represents a 3.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 103,472 shares of company stock worth $24,960,134 over the last three months. Company insiders own 5.05% of the company’s stock.

Natera Stock Performance

Natera stock opened at $326.26 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $47.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -239.90 and a beta of 1.51. Natera, Inc. has a 1 year low of $157.43 and a 1 year high of $343.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $285.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $233.78.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The medical research company reported ($0.47) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by $0.02. The business had revenue of $752.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $661.24 million. Natera had a negative return on equity of 11.38% and a negative net margin of 7.11%.The company’s revenue was up 37.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.74) EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Natera, Inc. will post -1.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Natera Profile

Natera is a global diagnostics company that develops and commercializes cell-free DNA and other genetic testing technologies for clinical applications. The company focuses on three principal areas: reproductive health (including non-invasive prenatal testing and carrier screening), oncology (tumor-informed assays for minimal residual disease and recurrence monitoring), and organ transplantation (cell-free DNA tests to detect allograft injury). Natera combines laboratory testing, proprietary bioinformatics, and clinical reporting to deliver personalized genetic information to clinicians and patients.

Key product offerings include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for fetal chromosomal abnormalities and select single-gene conditions; Horizon carrier screening for inherited conditions; Signatera, a personalized, tumor-informed assay used for detecting minimal residual disease and monitoring treatment response in cancer patients; and Prospera, a donor-derived cell-free DNA test used to assess the risk of organ rejection.