Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on KURA. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $28.00 price target (up from $11.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Monday, November 24th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Monday, October 20th. UBS Group upped their price target on Kura Oncology from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.00.

Kura Oncology Stock Performance

Shares of KURA stock opened at $8.72 on Tuesday. Kura Oncology has a 52-week low of $5.41 and a 52-week high of $12.49. The company has a quick ratio of 5.12, a current ratio of 5.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02. The stock has a market cap of $758.81 million, a PE ratio of -3.52 and a beta of 0.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.96.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.85) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.57) by ($0.28). Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 65.42% and a negative net margin of 208.48%.The company had revenue of $20.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.48 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Kura Oncology will post -2.44 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kura Oncology

In other news, insider Teresa Brophy Bair sold 8,804 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.18, for a total value of $98,428.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 188,139 shares in the company, valued at $2,103,394.02. This represents a 4.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Brian T. Powl sold 8,887 shares of Kura Oncology stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.18, for a total value of $99,356.66. Following the transaction, the insider owned 139,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,561,723.02. The trade was a 5.98% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 68,343 shares of company stock worth $730,858. 6.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kura Oncology

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KURA. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Kura Oncology by 392.8% in the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 3,072 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Kura Oncology by 127.2% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 3,769 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Kura Oncology by 471.3% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 9,958 shares during the period. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Kura Oncology during the second quarter worth $80,000. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Kura Oncology in the third quarter valued at $89,000.

About Kura Oncology

Kura Oncology, Inc (NASDAQ: KURA) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted oncology therapies. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the company leverages expertise in molecular biology and precision medicine to identify key drivers of cancer growth and design small-molecule inhibitors that block those pathways. Kura’s research platform integrates genomic insights with medicinal chemistry to advance candidates against well-validated targets in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s lead clinical candidate, tipifarnib, is a farnesyltransferase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and various non-small cell lung cancers.