Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.51 EPS

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.51, Zacks reports. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 8.34% and a net margin of 3.07%.The company had revenue of $3.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.74 million.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

Atara Biotherapeutics stock traded up $0.72 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $13.19. The company had a trading volume of 34,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 97,089. The firm has a market cap of $92.62 million, a P/E ratio of -30.36 and a beta of 0.26. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $13.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.87. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 1 year low of $5.01 and a 1 year high of $18.70.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atara Biotherapeutics

In related news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea purchased 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $12.19 per share, with a total value of $670,450.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 1,405,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,126,950. The trade was a 4.07% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 4.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Atara Biotherapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 203,438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,915,000 after acquiring an additional 12,677 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 183.5% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 63,816 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $914,000 after purchasing an additional 41,302 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in 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 period. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in Atara Biotherapeutics in the second quarter worth approximately $327,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics during the second quarter worth $31,000. 70.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings cut Atara Biotherapeutics from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Atara Biotherapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.00.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc engages in the development of transformative therapies for patients with solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune diseases in the United States and the United Kingdom. Its lead product includes Tab-cel (tabelecleucel), a T-cell immunotherapy program that is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epstein-barr virus (EBV) driven post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma.