Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Earns Buy Rating from HC Wainwright

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by analysts at HC Wainwright in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $40.00 price target on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective points to a potential upside of 327.35% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on KURA. Zacks Research raised Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 5th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective (up previously from $11.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Kura Oncology from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.00.

Kura Oncology Stock Performance

Shares of KURA stock opened at $9.36 on Tuesday. 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 $814.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.77 and a beta of 0.25. Kura Oncology has a 52 week low of $5.41 and a 52 week high of $12.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.86.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.85) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.57) by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $20.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.48 million. Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 65.42% and a negative net margin of 208.48%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Kura Oncology will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Francis Burrows sold 23,726 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.78, for a total value of $232,040.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 33,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $329,928.30. This trade represents a 41.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Teresa Brophy Bair sold 8,804 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.18, for a total transaction of $98,428.72. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 188,139 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,103,394.02. This represents a 4.47% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 68,343 shares of company stock worth $730,858 over the last quarter. Insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 392.8% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 3,072 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Kura Oncology by 127.2% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 6,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 3,769 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Kura Oncology by 471.3% during 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 increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 32.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 13,304 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after acquiring an additional 3,241 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in Kura Oncology in the 2nd quarter worth about $80,000.

Kura Oncology Company Profile

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.