Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong 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 $21.00.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a report on Tuesday.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

ATRA opened at $14.86 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $107.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.82 and a beta of 0.26. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $13.96 and its 200 day moving average is $11.31. Atara Biotherapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $5.01 and a fifty-two week high of $18.70.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.51. The business had revenue of $3.45 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.74 million. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 41.78% and a net margin of 15.40%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Atara Biotherapeutics will post -10.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Atara Biotherapeutics news, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 2,915 shares of Atara Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.19, for a total value of $38,448.85. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,974 shares in the company, valued at approximately $857,007.06. The trade was a 4.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold 6,523 shares of company stock worth $86,038 over the last three months. Company insiders own 4.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 60.0% in the first quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 80,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares during the last quarter. EcoR1 Capital LLC grew its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. EcoR1 Capital LLC now owns 573,183 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,405,000 after buying an additional 41,049 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 60,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $464,000 after acquiring an additional 1,457 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $327,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Institutional investors own 70.90% of the company’s stock.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc engages in the development of transformative therapies for patients with solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune diseases in the United States and the United Kingdom. Its lead product includes Tab-cel (tabelecleucel), a T-cell immunotherapy program that is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epstein-barr virus (EBV) driven post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma.