Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $25.4615.

KURA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their price target on Kura Oncology from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Monday, June 15th. CLSA set a $24.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $15.00 target price (down from $16.00) on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th.

Insider Activity at Kura Oncology

In other Kura Oncology news, insider Mollie Leoni sold 84,929 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.82, for a total value of $834,002.78. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 182,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,790,627.90. This represents a 31.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kura Oncology

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KURA. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Kura Oncology by 69.7% in the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 568,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,240,000 after buying an additional 233,633 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 46.1% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,230,131 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,001,000 after acquiring an additional 388,003 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 32.3% during the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 95,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $775,000 after acquiring an additional 23,266 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 130.1% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 89,303 shares of the company’s stock valued at $726,000 after acquiring an additional 50,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Kura Oncology in the 1st quarter valued at about $428,000.

Kura Oncology Stock Down 0.3%

Kura Oncology stock opened at $12.08 on Friday. Kura Oncology has a twelve month low of $5.45 and a twelve month high of $12.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.25. The company has a current ratio of 6.15, a quick ratio of 6.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.61 and a beta of 0.35.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.83) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.88) by $0.05. Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 141.95% and a negative net margin of 411.19%.The firm had revenue of $18.27 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.97 million. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kura Oncology will post -3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Kura Oncology

Kura Oncology, Inc (NASDAQ: KURA) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted oncology therapies. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the company leverages expertise in molecular biology and precision medicine to identify key drivers of cancer growth and design small-molecule inhibitors that block those pathways. Kura’s research platform integrates genomic insights with medicinal chemistry to advance candidates against well-validated targets in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s lead clinical candidate, tipifarnib, is a farnesyltransferase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and various non-small cell lung cancers.