TD Cowen Initiates Coverage on Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX)

Equities researchers at TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set a “buy” rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on NKTX. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Nkarta in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Nkarta from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Nkarta from $14.00 to $12.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Evercore set a $9.00 price target on Nkarta in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Nkarta presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.75.

Nkarta Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:NKTX opened at $2.79 on Tuesday. Nkarta has a 52-week low of $1.63 and a 52-week high of $3.65. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.40. The company has a market capitalization of $199.60 million, a P/E ratio of -2.08 and a beta of 0.91.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.37) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.02. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Nkarta will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GSK plc purchased a new stake in Nkarta in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,829,000. Monaco Asset Management SAM raised its stake in Nkarta by 29.2% during the fourth quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 2,546,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,712,000 after purchasing an additional 576,022 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in Nkarta by 1.8% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,732,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,655,000 after purchasing an additional 30,350 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,208,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,006,000 after purchasing an additional 10,065 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Nkarta by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,169,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,163,000 after purchasing an additional 21,241 shares during the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Nkarta Company Profile

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.