Wall Street Zen Downgrades Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) to Sell

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on ATRA. New Street Research set a $6.00 price target on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “hold” rating and set a $6.00 price objective (down from $25.00) on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Atara Biotherapeutics currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $6.00.

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Down 4.1%

Shares of Atara Biotherapeutics stock opened at $4.91 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.24. The stock has a market cap of $40.15 million, a PE ratio of 1.57 and a beta of -0.44. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 12 month low of $3.92 and a 12 month high of $19.15.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last released its earnings results on Monday, March 16th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.68) by $0.43. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 79.12% and a net margin of 27.07%.The firm had revenue of $1.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.70 million. Analysts expect that Atara Biotherapeutics will post -10.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Atara Biotherapeutics

In other news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 80,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $6.07, for a total transaction of $488,962.78. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,324,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,039,387.22. This trade represents a 5.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 4.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Atara Biotherapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quadrature Capital Ltd raised its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 20,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $368,000 after buying an additional 3,779 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 133.5% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 32,691 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $591,000 after buying an additional 18,691 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 28.4% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 148,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,689,000 after acquiring an additional 32,836 shares in the last quarter. Walleye Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $220,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 58.6% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 30,040 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 11,104 shares during the period. 70.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.