Mizuho Has Lowered Expectations for Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Stock Price

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) had its price target reduced by equities research analysts at Mizuho from $14.00 to $12.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Mizuho’s target price suggests a potential upside of 467.91% from the stock’s previous close.

NKTX has been the topic of several other research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Nkarta from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Nkarta from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.33.

Nkarta Stock Up 5.7%

NKTX opened at $2.11 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $156.97 million, a PE ratio of -1.51 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.10. Nkarta has a fifty-two week low of $1.42 and a fifty-two week high of $2.81.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 25th. The company reported ($0.37) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by ($0.05). On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Nkarta will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Nkarta

In related news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 26,046 shares of Nkarta stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.07, for a total transaction of $53,915.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 390,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $807,347.61. This trade represents a 6.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 8.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Nkarta by 478.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 69,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 57,399 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Nkarta by 300.5% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 672,078 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,237,000 after acquiring an additional 504,272 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Nkarta by 13.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 681,068 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,000 after acquiring an additional 80,211 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 118.7% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 134,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $247,000 after acquiring an additional 852,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,006,000 after acquiring an additional 10,065 shares during the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.