Insider Selling: Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) Insider Sells 12,079 Shares of Stock

Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) insider Conor Kilroy sold 12,079 shares of Aura Biosciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.05, for a total value of $60,998.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 167,234 shares in the company, valued at $844,531.70. The trade was a 6.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Aura Biosciences Trading Down 5.7%

Shares of Aura Biosciences stock traded down $0.32 on Tuesday, reaching $5.25. 463,309 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 180,467. Aura Biosciences, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $4.34 and a fifty-two week high of $8.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $333.38 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.71 and a beta of 0.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $5.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.97.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AURA. Trexquant Investment LP acquired a new stake in shares of Aura Biosciences during the 4th quarter valued at about $234,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP raised its position in Aura Biosciences by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 51,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,000 after acquiring an additional 7,998 shares in the last quarter. Opal Capital LLC bought a new stake in Aura Biosciences in the fourth quarter worth approximately $127,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 69,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $378,000 after purchasing an additional 4,366 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 926,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47,663 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.75% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AURA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore initiated coverage on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.50.

About Aura Biosciences

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.