HC Wainwright Reaffirms Buy Rating for Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $22.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright’s target price suggests a potential upside of 228.85% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aura Biosciences currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.50.

Aura Biosciences Price Performance

Shares of AURA stock opened at $6.69 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $424.82 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.74 and a beta of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.86. Aura Biosciences has a 1 year low of $4.34 and a 1 year high of $7.48.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 30th. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.43) by $0.06. Equities research analysts anticipate that Aura Biosciences will post -1.66 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Mark Plavsic sold 15,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.05, for a total transaction of $80,244.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer directly owned 181,397 shares in the company, valued at $916,054.85. The trade was a 8.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 47,648 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.06, for a total transaction of $241,098.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 409,815 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,073,663.90. The trade was a 10.42% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 123,076 shares of company stock worth $618,783. Company insiders own 6.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aura Biosciences

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. bought a new position in Aura Biosciences in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,926,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,890,503 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,863,000 after acquiring an additional 413,001 shares during the last quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 67.1% during the 2nd quarter. Nantahala Capital Management LLC now owns 2,117,697 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,257,000 after acquiring an additional 850,000 shares during the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 1,627,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,057,000 after acquiring an additional 131,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 926,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47,663 shares in the last quarter. 96.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Aura Biosciences Company Profile

Aura Biosciences is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel virus‐like particle (VLP) therapies for the treatment of cancer. By combining proprietary VLP technology with photoactivatable dyes, Aura aims to deliver highly selective photodynamic therapies that target and destroy tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. The company’s platform is designed to address solid tumors in both ophthalmic and non‐ophthalmic settings, leveraging precision activation via near‐infrared light to induce localized tumor cell apoptosis and stimulate anti‐tumor immune responses.

The lead product candidate, AU-011, is being evaluated in patients with choroidal melanoma, a rare but potentially sight-threatening eye cancer.