Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Stock Breaks Below 50 Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) passed below its fifty day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $9.12 and traded as low as $8.82. Atara Biotherapeutics shares last traded at $9.23, with a volume of 28,942 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Atara Biotherapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Trading Up 2.7%

The firm has a market capitalization of $95.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.03 and a beta of 0.21. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $9.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.45.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32). The business had revenue of $0.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.55 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. will post -0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Atara Biotherapeutics

In related news, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,062 shares of Atara Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.08, for a total value of $40,900.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 132,775 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,072,822. The trade was a 3.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Brian Cherry purchased 104,166 shares of Atara Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of $9.60 per share, for a total transaction of $999,993.60. Following the transaction, the director owned 166,486 shares in the company, valued at $1,598,265.60. This represents a 167.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 41.20% of the company’s stock.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on developing T-cell immunotherapies for cancer and serious diseases associated with viral infections. The company’s approach uses allogeneic, or donor-derived, T cells that are selected or engineered to recognize disease-related targets, with the goal of providing off-the-shelf treatment options.

Atara’s lead product, Ebvallo (tabelecleucel), is an allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy designed to treat Epstein-Barr virus-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+ PTLD) in certain patients who have received a solid-organ or hematopoietic-cell transplant.