Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports.

NKTX has been the topic of several other research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Monday, September 21st. HC Wainwright assumed coverage on Nkarta in a research note on Monday, November 2nd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Nkarta from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Nkarta presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.20.

Nkarta Stock Performance

Shares of NKTX stock traded down $0.20 on Monday, hitting $1.52. 6,749,386 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 802,766. Nkarta has a twelve month low of $1.13 and a twelve month high of $3.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $2.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $109.22 million, a PE ratio of -0.85 and a beta of 1.24.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.40) by ($0.05). On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Nkarta will post -1.60 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Nkarta in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $17,830,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM acquired a new stake in Nkarta in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $6,717,000. AWM Investment Company Inc. acquired a new stake in Nkarta in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,564,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Nkarta in the second quarter valued at approximately $325,000. Finally, Forefront Analytics LLC purchased a new stake in Nkarta in the second quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 80.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company’s platform is designed to produce allogeneic, or donor-derived, NK cells that can be engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to recognize and attack targeted cells.

Nkarta’s research and development programs have included NKX019, a CD19-targeted CAR NK-cell therapy investigated for B-cell malignancies and autoimmune disorders, and NKX101, an NKG2D-targeted CAR NK-cell therapy developed for certain solid tumors.