Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $29.3333.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $38.00 price target (up previously from $36.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Friday, November 14th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $28.00 target price (up from $11.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Monday, November 24th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $24.00 price target on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Zacks Research raised Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Friday, November 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kura Oncology news, insider Francis Burrows sold 23,726 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.78, for a total transaction of $232,040.28. Following the sale, the insider owned 33,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $329,928.30. The trade was a 41.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Thomas James Doyle sold 4,539 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.18, for a total value of $50,746.02. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 130,257 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,456,273.26. This represents a 3.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 68,343 shares of company stock valued at $730,858. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Kura Oncology

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in KURA. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Kura Oncology by 392.8% in the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 3,072 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 127.2% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 3,769 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 471.3% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after buying an additional 9,958 shares in the last quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 32.2% in the second quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 13,304 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241 shares during the period. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Kura Oncology during the second quarter valued at approximately $80,000.

Kura Oncology Price Performance

KURA opened at $9.55 on Friday. Kura Oncology has a fifty-two week low of $5.41 and a fifty-two week high of $12.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $10.74 and a 200 day moving average of $8.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 5.12 and a current ratio of 5.12. The firm has a market cap of $831.02 million, a P/E ratio of -3.85 and a beta of 0.25.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.85) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.57) by ($0.28). Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 65.42% and a negative net margin of 208.48%.The company had revenue of $20.75 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.48 million. On average, research analysts expect that Kura Oncology will post -2.44 EPS for the current year.

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.