Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Stock Falls 2.8% – Here’s What Happened

Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) shares traded down 2.8% during mid-day trading on Monday. The company traded as low as $1.75 and last traded at $1.75. Approximately 1,436,657 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 96% from the average daily volume of 734,699 shares. The stock had previously closed at $1.80.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NKTX shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Monday, September 21st. HC Wainwright dropped their price objective on Nkarta to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Nkarta from $11.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 14th. TD Cowen started coverage on Nkarta in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $11.20.

Nkarta Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $124.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.11 and a beta of 0.93. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $2.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.68.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported ($0.54) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.36) by ($0.18). On average, analysts predict that Nkarta, Inc. will post -1.60 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Nkarta during the 2nd quarter worth about $17,830,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM purchased a new stake in Nkarta in the second quarter valued at approximately $6,717,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Nkarta by 1.8% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,732,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,655,000 after purchasing an additional 30,350 shares during the period. AWM Investment Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Nkarta in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,564,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Nkarta by 74.4% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 346,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 147,894 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.54% of the company’s stock.

Nkarta Company Profile

Nkarta, Inc (NASDAQ:NKTX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company’s approach is designed to harness the innate immune activity of NK cells while using chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to direct them toward specific disease-associated targets.

Nkarta’s development platform includes allogeneic, or donor-derived, CAR NK cell therapies intended to be manufactured for use across multiple patients.