Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Shares Up 6.2% – Should You Buy?

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA)’s stock price traded up 6.2% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $11.67 and last traded at $11.7250. Approximately 966,359 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 40% from the average daily volume of 1,598,565 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.04.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KURA. Oppenheimer set a $24.00 price target on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $24.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Monday, June 15th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Kura Oncology from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $24.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Kura Oncology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.46.

Kura Oncology Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 6.15 and a quick ratio of 6.14. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $9.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $9.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.52 and a beta of 0.35.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.83) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.88) by $0.05. Kura Oncology had a negative net margin of 411.19% and a negative return on equity of 141.95%. The company had revenue of $18.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.97 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Kura Oncology, Inc. will post -3.45 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Mollie Leoni sold 84,929 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.82, for a total transaction of $834,002.78. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 182,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,790,627.90. This represents a 31.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Kura Oncology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Kura Oncology by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,931,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,959 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 101.6% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,224,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121,228 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kura Oncology by 111.6% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,830,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,020,000 after purchasing an additional 965,256 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kura Oncology by 36.6% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,062,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,816,000 after purchasing an additional 820,020 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 63.0% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,911,886 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,032,000 after buying an additional 738,761 shares during the last quarter.

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.