NextCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) Stock Short Interest Climbs 102.7%

NextCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) saw a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totaling 213,309 shares, a growth of 102.7% from the September 15th total of 105,240 shares. Approximately 6.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 114,775 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.9 days.

NextCure Trading Up 4.6%

Shares of NASDAQ NXTC opened at $6.88 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $6.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.44. NextCure has a 1 year low of $1.55 and a 1 year high of $15.74.

NextCure (NASDAQ:NXTC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($2.80) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.95) by ($0.85).

Insider Activity at NextCure

In other news, major shareholder Adar1 Capital Management, Llc bought 36,303 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 31st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $4.94 per share, with a total value of $179,336.82. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 722,419 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,568,749.86. This represents a 5.29% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders bought 346,761 shares of company stock valued at $1,710,807. Company insiders own 11.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in NextCure stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in NextCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) by 80.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 60,534 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 26,900 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned 1.68% of NextCure worth $647,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on NXTC. Weiss Ratings raised NextCure from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of NextCure in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised NextCure from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.00.

About NextCure

NextCure, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel immunotherapies for cancer. The company’s research is centered on treatments designed to stimulate or restore the immune system’s ability to recognize and attack tumor cells, with the goal of addressing limitations associated with existing cancer immunotherapies.

NextCure’s pipeline has included investigational antibody-based therapies and other immune-modulating programs targeting mechanisms that can suppress immune responses in the tumor microenvironment.