Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in Natera, Inc. $NTRA

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) by 7.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 25,287 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,813 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Natera were worth $6,864,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Trust Co. of Vermont purchased a new position in shares of Natera in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Reflection Asset Management bought a new position in Natera in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Natera during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Palladiem LLC purchased a new position in Natera during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Natera during the third quarter valued at about $32,000. 99.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTRA. Stephens increased their price target on shares of Natera from $305.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $375.00 target price on shares of Natera in a report on Friday, August 7th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Natera from $315.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Natera in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Natera from $315.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $319.38.

Natera Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ NTRA opened at $321.96 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $286.93 and a 200-day moving average of $234.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -236.73 and a beta of 1.51. Natera, Inc. has a 12 month low of $157.43 and a 12 month high of $343.18.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The medical research company reported ($0.47) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.49) by $0.02. Natera had a negative net margin of 7.11% and a negative return on equity of 11.38%. The business had revenue of $752.75 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $661.24 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.74) earnings per share. Natera’s quarterly revenue was up 37.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Natera, Inc. will post -1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Natera

In other news, CEO Steven Leonard Chapman sold 3,076 shares of Natera stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $266.39, for a total transaction of $819,415.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 99,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,611,561.83. The trade was a 2.99% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Solomon Moshkevich sold 3,410 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.58, for a total transaction of $905,627.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 129,019 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,264,866.02. This trade represents a 2.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 103,472 shares of company stock worth $24,960,134. Corporate insiders own 5.05% of the company’s stock.

About Natera

Natera is a global diagnostics company that develops and commercializes cell-free DNA and other genetic testing technologies for clinical applications. The company focuses on three principal areas: reproductive health (including non-invasive prenatal testing and carrier screening), oncology (tumor-informed assays for minimal residual disease and recurrence monitoring), and organ transplantation (cell-free DNA tests to detect allograft injury). Natera combines laboratory testing, proprietary bioinformatics, and clinical reporting to deliver personalized genetic information to clinicians and patients.

Key product offerings include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for fetal chromosomal abnormalities and select single-gene conditions; Horizon carrier screening for inherited conditions; Signatera, a personalized, tumor-informed assay used for detecting minimal residual disease and monitoring treatment response in cancer patients; and Prospera, a donor-derived cell-free DNA test used to assess the risk of organ rejection.