Aurora Innovation’s (AUR) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $13.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target points to a potential upside of 198.17% from the company’s current price.

AUR has been the topic of several other reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a report on Monday. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $15.00 price objective on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $10.06.

Aurora Innovation Price Performance

Shares of Aurora Innovation stock opened at $4.36 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a PE ratio of -9.69 and a beta of 2.47. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $4.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $4.97. Aurora Innovation has a 1 year low of $3.60 and a 1 year high of $10.77.

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.12) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.47 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aurora Innovation will post -0.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aurora Innovation

In related news, CEO Christopher Urmson purchased 258,000 shares of Aurora Innovation stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $3.88 per share, for a total transaction of $1,001,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 258,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,001,040. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 11.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aurora Innovation

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nuveen LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 17.3% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 2,219,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,523,000 after acquiring an additional 327,604 shares during the last quarter. Xponance LLC increased its position in shares of Aurora Innovation by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Xponance LLC now owns 58,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 5,567 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Aurora Innovation by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 5,220,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,045,000 after purchasing an additional 476,950 shares in the last quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Aurora Innovation in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in Aurora Innovation by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 10,203,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,182,000 after purchasing an additional 345,000 shares in the last quarter. 44.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company’s core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.