Analysts Set Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Target Price at $20.50

Shares of Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $20.50.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AURA. Evercore ISI started coverage on Aura Biosciences in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Monday, December 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aura Biosciences news, insider Janet Jill Hopkins sold 17,109 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.42, for a total value of $92,730.78. Following the transaction, the insider owned 252,685 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,369,552.70. The trade was a 6.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Mark Plavsic sold 12,169 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $6.35, for a total transaction of $77,273.15. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 197,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,252,772.45. This trade represents a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 39,223 shares of company stock valued at $233,155 over the last three months. 6.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AURA. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Aura Biosciences in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,926,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Aura Biosciences by 16.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,890,503 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,863,000 after acquiring an additional 413,001 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 5.9% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,340,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,653,000 after acquiring an additional 130,221 shares in the last quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 67.1% in the second quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC now owns 2,117,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,257,000 after acquiring an additional 850,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Levin Capital Strategies L.P. increased its position in Aura Biosciences by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 1,627,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,057,000 after purchasing an additional 131,714 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.75% of the company’s stock.

Aura Biosciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AURA opened at $5.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $321.31 million, a P/E ratio of -2.61 and a beta of 0.46. Aura Biosciences has a one year low of $4.34 and a one year high of $8.27. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $6.18.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 13th. The company reported ($0.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.46) by $0.06. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aura Biosciences will post -1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Aura Biosciences

Aura Biosciences is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel virus‐like particle (VLP) therapies for the treatment of cancer. By combining proprietary VLP technology with photoactivatable dyes, Aura aims to deliver highly selective photodynamic therapies that target and destroy tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. The company’s platform is designed to address solid tumors in both ophthalmic and non‐ophthalmic settings, leveraging precision activation via near‐infrared light to induce localized tumor cell apoptosis and stimulate anti‐tumor immune responses.

The lead product candidate, AU-011, is being evaluated in patients with choroidal melanoma, a rare but potentially sight-threatening eye cancer.