Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported ($0.35) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.41) by $0.06, Zacks reports.

Nkarta Stock Performance

Nkarta stock traded up $0.60 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $1.97. The stock had a trading volume of 8,274,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,057,777. The stock has a market capitalization of $138.67 million, a P/E ratio of -1.05 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $2.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.90. Nkarta has a 1-year low of $1.31 and a 1-year high of $11.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Paul J. Hastings sold 17,378 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.20, for a total transaction of $38,231.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 319,859 shares in the company, valued at approximately $703,689.80. This represents a 5.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 8.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NKTX. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Nkarta from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 price objective on shares of Nkarta in a report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Nkarta in a research note on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $14.86.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes natural killer cell therapies for cancer and autoimmune disease treatment. The company's lead product candidate is NKX019, a chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer (CAR NK) targeting the CD19 antigen that is in Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (r/r) non-hodgkin lymphoma, as well as for lupus nephritis.