Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $10.75.

NKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nkarta from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a report on Friday, March 27th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Nkarta from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Evercore set a $9.00 price objective on Nkarta in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 price objective on shares of Nkarta in a report on Wednesday, May 13th.

Nkarta Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NKTX opened at $2.86 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $2.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $2.39. Nkarta has a 52 week low of $1.63 and a 52 week high of $3.65. The company has a market capitalization of $204.60 million, a P/E ratio of -2.13 and a beta of 0.91.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.02. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Nkarta will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Nkarta

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NKTX. Peapod Lane Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Nkarta by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC now owns 676,199 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,251,000 after acquiring an additional 4,933 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in Nkarta by 4.0% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 231,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $384,000 after purchasing an additional 8,968 shares during the period. Abel Hall LLC lifted its position in Nkarta by 65.4% in the first quarter. Abel Hall LLC now owns 24,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 9,535 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Nkarta by 0.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,006,000 after purchasing an additional 10,065 shares during the period. Finally, Samalin Investment Counsel LLC lifted its position in Nkarta by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC now owns 150,235 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 10,070 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.54% of the company’s stock.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Leveraging proprietary activation and expansion technologies, Nkarta aims to harness the innate tumor-killing properties of NK cells while incorporating targeted immuno-engineering approaches to enhance safety, potency and persistence in patients. The company’s platform supports both allogeneic cell manufacturing and genetic modifications to generate chimeric antigen receptor-expressing NK cell candidates designed to address a range of hematologic and solid tumors.

Nkarta’s lead program, NKX019, is an anti-CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy in early-phase clinical trials for relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies.