Short Interest in NextCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) Drops By 68.9%

NextCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totaling 46,066 shares, a decline of 68.9% from the August 15th total of 148,136 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 115,778 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.4 days. Currently, 1.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NXTC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of NextCure from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of NextCure from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of NextCure in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised NextCure from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.00.

NextCure Trading Down 4.2%

Shares of NASDAQ NXTC traded down $0.31 on Friday, reaching $7.00. 115,256 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 109,457. The company has a 50 day moving average of $5.77 and a 200 day moving average of $7.51. NextCure has a fifty-two week low of $1.55 and a fifty-two week high of $15.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.28 million, a PE ratio of -0.80 and a beta of 1.33.

NextCure (NASDAQ:NXTC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($2.80) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.95) by ($0.85).

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Adar1 Capital Management, Llc bought 292,850 shares of NextCure stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $4.93 per share, for a total transaction of $1,443,750.50. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 686,116 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,382,551.88. This trade represents a 74.47% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 346,761 shares of company stock valued at $1,710,807. Insiders own 11.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NextCure

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NXTC. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of NextCure during the 4th quarter worth $160,000. Millennium Management LLC acquired a new position in NextCure in the fourth quarter valued at $185,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NextCure by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $329,000 after acquiring an additional 3,636 shares during the last quarter. Cable Car Capital LP boosted its holdings in NextCure by 13.1% in the second quarter. Cable Car Capital LP now owns 758,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $349,000 after acquiring an additional 88,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in NextCure by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 33,634 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,000 after acquiring an additional 5,300 shares during the period. 42.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NextCure Company Profile

NextCure, Inc is a clinical‐stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel immune modulators for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Leveraging its proprietary Therapeutic Discovery Engine (TDE™), the company aims to identify, validate and optimize new targets in the immune response pathway. NextCure’s research platform integrates large‐scale proteomics and functional genomics to accelerate the progression of promising therapeutic candidates from early discovery through clinical development.

The company’s pipeline includes multiple product candidates in various stages of preclinical and clinical evaluation.