Zacks Research Upgrades NextCure (NASDAQ:NXTC) to Hold

NextCure (NASDAQ:NXTC) was upgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of NextCure in a report on Monday, April 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.00.

NextCure Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NXTC opened at $2.08 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.51 million, a PE ratio of -0.12 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.00. NextCure has a fifty-two week low of $2.00 and a fifty-two week high of $15.74.

NextCure (NASDAQ:NXTC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported ($1.87) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.10) by $0.23. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NextCure will post -7.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NextCure

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NXTC. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of NextCure during the fourth quarter worth about $160,000. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NextCure during the fourth quarter worth about $185,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NextCure by 18.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,157 shares of the company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 3,636 shares during the period. Cable Car Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of NextCure by 13.1% during the second quarter. Cable Car Capital LP now owns 758,141 shares of the company’s stock worth $349,000 after purchasing an additional 88,040 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NextCure by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 33,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 5,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.65% of the company’s stock.

About NextCure

NextCure, Inc is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel immune modulators for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Leveraging its proprietary Therapeutic Discovery Engine (TDE™), the company aims to identify, validate and optimize new targets in the immune response pathway. NextCure’s research platform integrates large‐scale proteomics and functional genomics to accelerate the progression of promising therapeutic candidates from early discovery through clinical development.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple product candidates in various stages of preclinical and clinical evaluation.