Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) Earns “Buy” Rating from BTIG Research

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities researchers at BTIG Research in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $178.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 332.90% from the company’s current price.

NKTR has been the subject of a number of other reports. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 target price on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nektar Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, August 21st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on Nektar Therapeutics in a research report on Friday. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Wedbush reduced their price objective on Nektar Therapeutics from $80.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Nektar Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $138.50.

Nektar Therapeutics Stock Up 0.8%

NKTR stock traded up $0.32 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $41.12. The company had a trading volume of 539,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,100,990. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $67.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $70.12. Nektar Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $33.40 and a fifty-two week high of $109.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of -6.15 and a beta of 1.26.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.23) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.97) by $0.74. Nektar Therapeutics had a negative return on equity of 37.87% and a negative net margin of 287.84%.The company had revenue of $10.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.43 million. Research analysts predict that Nektar Therapeutics will post -8.16 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Howard Robin sold 418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.98, for a total transaction of $30,087.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 54,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,932,051.46. The trade was a 0.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nektar Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. KBC Group NV bought a new stake in Nektar Therapeutics during the first quarter worth approximately $52,000. State of Wyoming bought a new position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $67,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $209,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at $206,000. Finally, Pale Fire Capital SE bought a new position in shares of Nektar Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at $234,000. Institutional investors own 75.88% of the company’s stock.

About Nektar Therapeutics

Nektar Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing medicines that use the body’s immune system to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company’s research programs are based on proprietary drug-design and immunology technologies intended to improve the activity, targeting, or dosing of therapeutic agents.

Nektar’s pipeline has included NKTR-255, an investigational interleukin-15 receptor agonist designed to activate natural killer cells and support antitumor immune responses.