Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $25.5833.

KURA has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 price target (down from $16.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Zacks Research raised shares of Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush reduced their price target on shares of Kura Oncology from $38.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $24.00 price target on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Thursday, May 28th.

Kura Oncology Stock Performance

Shares of KURA opened at $8.74 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 6.15, a quick ratio of 6.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Kura Oncology has a 12-month low of $5.45 and a 12-month high of $12.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $9.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $775.88 million, a P/E ratio of -2.61 and a beta of 0.36.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.83) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.88) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $18.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.97 million. Kura Oncology had a negative net margin of 411.19% and a negative return on equity of 141.95%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Kura Oncology will post -3.47 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Kura Oncology

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KURA. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 46.1% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,230,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,001,000 after purchasing an additional 388,003 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 32.3% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 95,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $775,000 after purchasing an additional 23,266 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 130.1% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 89,303 shares of the company’s stock valued at $726,000 after purchasing an additional 50,498 shares during the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in Kura Oncology in the first quarter valued at approximately $428,000. Finally, Pale Fire Capital SE increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 89.6% in the first quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 857,474 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,971,000 after purchasing an additional 405,229 shares during the last quarter.

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.