ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) Shares Up 5.2% – Time to Buy?

ProKidney Corp. (NASDAQ:PROK)’s share price was up 5.2% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $2.34 and last traded at $2.3150. Approximately 458,415 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 90% from the average daily volume of 4,370,086 shares. The stock had previously closed at $2.20.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PROK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of ProKidney in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. HC Wainwright started coverage on shares of ProKidney in a research note on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $12.00 price objective on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.40.

ProKidney Stock Up 5.9%

The company has a market capitalization of $700.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.24 and a beta of 1.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $2.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.37.

ProKidney (NASDAQ:PROK) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.12). The company had revenue of $0.22 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.04 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ProKidney Corp. will post -0.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other ProKidney news, Director Brian Jg Pereira sold 502,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.37, for a total transaction of $1,190,062.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 41.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of ProKidney

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in ProKidney by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 825,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $723,000 after purchasing an additional 65,860 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of ProKidney by 49.4% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 86,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 28,546 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ProKidney in the first quarter valued at about $233,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ProKidney by 106.4% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 52,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 27,098 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in ProKidney during the second quarter worth about $208,000. 51.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ProKidney

ProKidney Corp., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, provides transformative proprietary cell therapy platform for treating various chronic kidney diseases in the United States. The company's lead product is Renal Autologous Cell Therapy (REACT), an autologous homologous cell admixture, which has completed Phase I clinical trial for REACT in patients with congenital anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT), as well as in Phase III and Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of moderate to severe diabetic kidney disease.