Oruka Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ORKA) Trading Up 5% on Analyst Upgrade

Oruka Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORKA)’s share price shot up 5% on Tuesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $50.00 to $78.00. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Oruka Therapeutics traded as high as $58.53 and last traded at $59.20. 623,149 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 584,512 shares. The stock had previously closed at $56.37.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on ORKA. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, December 18th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $75.00 price objective for the company. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $73.00 price objective on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 13th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Oruka Therapeutics from $50.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Oruka Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.90.

Insider Activity at Oruka Therapeutics

In other Oruka Therapeutics news, CEO Lawrence Otto Klein sold 1,729 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.30, for a total value of $71,407.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 927,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,297,861.70. This trade represents a 0.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Joana Goncalves sold 7,641 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.91, for a total transaction of $312,593.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 33,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,453.07. The trade was a 18.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,765 shares of company stock valued at $849,575. 24.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairmount Funds Management LLC boosted its holdings in Oruka Therapeutics by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fairmount Funds Management LLC now owns 3,705,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,252,000 after purchasing an additional 333,340 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP bought a new position in Oruka Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at $51,280,000. Deep Track Capital LP boosted its holdings in Oruka Therapeutics by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deep Track Capital LP now owns 2,654,781 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,051,000 after purchasing an additional 735,983 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Oruka Therapeutics by 38.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,453,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,366,000 after purchasing an additional 676,865 shares during the period. Finally, RTW Investments LP boosted its holdings in Oruka Therapeutics by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 2,058,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,382,000 after purchasing an additional 112,499 shares during the period. 56.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Oruka Therapeutics Trading Up 2.3%

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -33.34 and a beta of -0.54.

Oruka Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ORKA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported ($0.45) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.61) by $0.16. Equities research analysts predict that Oruka Therapeutics, Inc. will post -3.41 earnings per share for the current year.

About Oruka Therapeutics

Oruka Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel peptide‐based therapies for oncology. The company’s proprietary stapled peptide platform is designed to selectively disrupt intracellular protein–protein interactions that drive tumor growth and immune evasion. By combining the specificity of biologics with the cell‐permeability of small molecules, Oruka aims to target cancer pathways that have been historically considered “undruggable.”

The company’s lead candidate, ONCT-01, is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for patients with advanced solid tumors, assessing safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy.