California Public Employees Retirement System Purchases 29,296 Shares of Natera, Inc. $NTRA

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) by 15.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 217,422 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 29,296 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.16% of Natera worth $36,731,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Natera by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,676,653 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,141,594,000 after acquiring an additional 282,826 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Natera by 44.3% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 10,625,785 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,795,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,263,822 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Natera by 56.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,537,743 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,490,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,795,315 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Natera by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,552,725 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $430,640,000 after purchasing an additional 166,768 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Natera by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,035,979 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $287,908,000 after purchasing an additional 245,719 shares during the last quarter. 99.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on NTRA shares. Stephens upped their price objective on Natera from $197.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Natera to a “hold” rating and set a $172.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Natera in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BTIG Research lifted their price target on shares of Natera from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Natera from $218.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.29.

Natera Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NTRA opened at $233.13 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $204.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $175.57. Natera, Inc. has a 12 month low of $125.38 and a 12 month high of $246.90. The company has a market capitalization of $32.25 billion, a PE ratio of -101.80 and a beta of 1.63.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The medical research company reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by ($0.25). The company had revenue of $592.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $514.55 million. Natera had a negative net margin of 14.61% and a negative return on equity of 25.07%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.26) EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Natera, Inc. will post -1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Roelof Botha sold 75,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $17,709,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,154,198 shares in the company, valued at $272,529,231.76. The trade was a 6.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Steven Leonard Chapman sold 4,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.07, for a total value of $1,047,508.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 140,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,428,837.12. The trade was a 3.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 312,053 shares of company stock worth $64,527,735. Corporate insiders own 5.63% of the company’s stock.

Natera Company Profile

Natera, Inc, a diagnostics company, develops and commercializes molecular testing services worldwide. Its products include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for chromosomal abnormalities of a fetus, as well as in twin pregnancies; Horizon carrier screening test for individuals and couples determine if they are carriers of genetic variations that cause certain genetic conditions; Vistara single-gene NIPT screens for 25 single-gene disorders that cause severe skeletal, cardiac, and neurological conditions; Spectrum, preimplantation genetic tests for couples undergoing IVF; Anora that analyzes miscarriage tissue from women; Empower, a hereditary cancer screening test; and non-invasive prenatal paternity product, which allows a couple to establish paternity without waiting for the child to be born.