Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Receives $20.00 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.50.

AURA has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aura Biosciences from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 4th. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on shares of Aura Biosciences from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Leerink Partners set a $17.00 target price on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Aura Biosciences from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th.

Aura Biosciences Price Performance

Shares of AURA stock opened at $7.60 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $7.09 and a 200-day moving average of $6.18. The company has a market cap of $785.76 million, a P/E ratio of -4.37 and a beta of 0.37. Aura Biosciences has a one year low of $4.73 and a one year high of $9.53.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported ($0.50) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.40) by ($0.10). As a group, research analysts expect that Aura Biosciences will post -1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Matrix Capital Management Comp sold 6,922,870 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.64, for a total transaction of $39,044,986.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Conor Kilroy sold 11,738 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.02, for a total transaction of $82,400.76. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 217,835 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,529,201.70. This represents a 5.11% 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. 6.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 49.3% during the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 12.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 24,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,000 after purchasing an additional 2,693 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 130.4% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 3,206 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 5.5% in the third quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 69,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 3,630 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 69,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $378,000 after purchasing an additional 4,366 shares in the last quarter. 96.75% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Aura Biosciences Company Profile

Aura Biosciences is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel virus‐like particle (VLP) therapies for the treatment of cancer. By combining proprietary VLP technology with photoactivatable dyes, Aura aims to deliver highly selective photodynamic therapies that target and destroy tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. The company’s platform is designed to address solid tumors in both ophthalmic and non‐ophthalmic settings, leveraging precision activation via near‐infrared light to induce localized tumor cell apoptosis and stimulate anti‐tumor immune responses.

The lead product candidate, AU-011, is being evaluated in patients with choroidal melanoma, a rare but potentially sight-threatening eye cancer.