Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Cut to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on ATRA. New Street Research set a $6.00 target price on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $6.00 price objective (down from $25.00) on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Atara Biotherapeutics currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $6.00.

Atara Biotherapeutics Price Performance

ATRA opened at $4.84 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.59 million, a PE ratio of 1.55 and a beta of -0.44. The business’s 50-day moving average is $5.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.18. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 1 year low of $3.92 and a 1 year high of $19.15.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.68) by $0.43. Atara Biotherapeutics had a net margin of 27.07% and a negative return on equity of 79.12%. The business had revenue of $1.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.70 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Atara Biotherapeutics will post -10.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 80,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.07, for a total value of $488,962.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,324,446 shares in the company, valued at $8,039,387.22. This trade represents a 5.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 4.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Atara Biotherapeutics

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 20,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 3,779 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 133.5% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 32,691 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $591,000 after buying an additional 18,691 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 148,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,689,000 after buying an additional 32,836 shares during the period. Walleye Capital LLC acquired a new position in Atara Biotherapeutics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $220,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 58.6% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 30,040 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $543,000 after buying an additional 11,104 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.90% of the company’s stock.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.