Wall Street Zen Upgrades Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) to “Hold”

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Sunday.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on KURA. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Kura Oncology from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Friday, December 5th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Leerink Partners set a $20.00 target price on Kura Oncology and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Kura Oncology presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $28.00.

Kura Oncology Trading Down 1.3%

NASDAQ KURA opened at $8.35 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $726.62 million, a P/E ratio of -3.37 and a beta of 0.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.11 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 5.12 and a quick ratio of 5.12. Kura Oncology has a one year low of $5.41 and a one year high of $12.49.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Francis Burrows sold 23,726 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.78, for a total value of $232,040.28. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 33,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $329,928.30. This represents a 41.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian T. Powl sold 6,414 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.46, for a total value of $54,262.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 183,275 shares in the company, valued at $1,550,506.50. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 59,794 shares of company stock worth $537,176 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kura Oncology

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Suvretta Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Kura Oncology by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Suvretta Capital Management LLC now owns 8,575,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,099,000 after acquiring an additional 459,422 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,507,627 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,224,000 after purchasing an additional 39,105 shares during the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 4,936,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,285,000 after purchasing an additional 264,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,931,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587,959 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EcoR1 Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Kura Oncology by 59.1% during the second quarter. EcoR1 Capital LLC now owns 4,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,559,702 shares during the last quarter.

Kura Oncology Company Profile

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.