Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Issues Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.05 EPS

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($0.05), FiscalAI reports.

Nkarta Stock Up 3.9%

NASDAQ NKTX opened at $2.13 on Thursday. Nkarta has a 52 week low of $1.31 and a 52 week high of $2.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.29 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.54 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a fifty day moving average of $2.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.10.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of Nkarta stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total transaction of $53,915.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 390,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $807,347.61. The trade was a 6.26% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 8.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NKTX. GSK plc bought a new stake in Nkarta during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,829,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Nkarta by 48.6% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,702,022 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,149,000 after acquiring an additional 556,945 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,006,000 after acquiring an additional 10,065 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Nkarta by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,169,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,163,000 after acquiring an additional 21,241 shares during the period. Finally, AWM Investment Company Inc. raised its stake in shares of Nkarta by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. AWM Investment Company Inc. now owns 906,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,676,000 after acquiring an additional 106,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on NKTX. Wall Street Zen upgraded Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.25.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Leveraging proprietary activation and expansion technologies, Nkarta aims to harness the innate tumor-killing properties of NK cells while incorporating targeted immuno-engineering approaches to enhance safety, potency and persistence in patients. The company’s platform supports both allogeneic cell manufacturing and genetic modifications to generate chimeric antigen receptor-expressing NK cell candidates designed to address a range of hematologic and solid tumors.

Nkarta’s lead program, NKX019, is an anti-CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy in early-phase clinical trials for relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies.