Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on ATRA. Freedom Capital upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings cut Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 price objective on Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Atara Biotherapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

ATRA stock opened at $10.41 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $93.79 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.54 and a beta of 0.11. Atara Biotherapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $3.92 and a fifty-two week high of $19.15. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $7.59 and a 200-day moving average of $8.65.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.29) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.33) by $0.04. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 79.12% and a negative net margin of 40.91%.The company had revenue of $0.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 million. Equities analysts predict that Atara Biotherapeutics will post 0.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atara Biotherapeutics

In other Atara Biotherapeutics news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 313,446 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $3,165,804.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,011,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,211,100. The trade was a 23.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,241 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.13, for a total value of $47,850.33. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 137,837 shares in the company, valued at $1,258,451.81. This trade represents a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 321,101 shares of company stock worth $3,235,695 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 41.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ATRA. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in the second quarter worth $31,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $181,000. Walleye Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $220,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in the second quarter worth about $327,000. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 20,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $368,000 after buying an additional 3,779 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.90% of the company’s stock.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.