Natera, Inc. $NTRA Shares Sold by Formula Growth Ltd.

Formula Growth Ltd. trimmed its holdings in Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) by 14.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,290 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,442 shares during the period. Formula Growth Ltd.’s holdings in Natera were worth $2,414,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Natera by 83.5% in the first quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 233 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop National Bank bought a new stake in shares of Natera in the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Natera in the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Natera during the first quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its position in shares of Natera by 1,857.1% during the first quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 274 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTRA has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Natera from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Natera in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Stephens raised their price objective on Natera from $197.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Natera from $218.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, BTIG Research increased their target price on shares of Natera from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Fifteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $223.53.

Natera Stock Performance

NTRA stock opened at $244.55 on Friday. Natera, Inc. has a 1 year low of $125.38 and a 1 year high of $245.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -106.79 and a beta of 1.63. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $199.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.81.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The medical research company reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by ($0.25). The firm had revenue of $592.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $514.55 million. Natera had a negative return on equity of 25.07% and a negative net margin of 14.61%.The firm’s revenue was up 34.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.26) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Natera, Inc. will post -1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Natera news, Director Roy D. Baynes sold 7,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.08, for a total transaction of $1,710,577.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,095,525.72. The trade was a 29.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Roelof Botha sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $17,709,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,154,198 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $272,529,231.76. The trade was a 6.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 307,687 shares of company stock valued at $63,466,360. Corporate insiders own 5.63% of the company’s stock.

Natera Profile

Natera, Inc, a diagnostics company, develops and commercializes molecular testing services worldwide. Its products include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for chromosomal abnormalities of a fetus, as well as in twin pregnancies; Horizon carrier screening test for individuals and couples determine if they are carriers of genetic variations that cause certain genetic conditions; Vistara single-gene NIPT screens for 25 single-gene disorders that cause severe skeletal, cardiac, and neurological conditions; Spectrum, preimplantation genetic tests for couples undergoing IVF; Anora that analyzes miscarriage tissue from women; Empower, a hereditary cancer screening test; and non-invasive prenatal paternity product, which allows a couple to establish paternity without waiting for the child to be born.