Short Interest in Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) Drops By 44.5%

Nkarta, Inc. (NASDAQ:NKTX) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totaling 6,020,166 shares, a decline of 44.5% from the December 15th total of 10,850,709 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 669,661 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.0 days. Currently, 9.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Currently, 9.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 669,661 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 9.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Nkarta from $12.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Nkarta from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Nkarta in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.25.

Nkarta Trading Up 4.1%

Shares of NKTX traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $2.04. 964,985 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 689,064. Nkarta has a 52-week low of $1.31 and a 52-week high of $2.74. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $1.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.02. The company has a market cap of $144.90 million, a P/E ratio of -1.48 and a beta of 0.60.

Nkarta (NASDAQ:NKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.32) by $0.03. On average, research analysts forecast that Nkarta will post -1.7 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nkarta

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Nkarta in the second quarter worth $36,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in Nkarta by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 6,141 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its stake in Nkarta by 23.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 34,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 6,601 shares in the last quarter. Bailard Inc. bought a new position in shares of Nkarta during the 3rd quarter valued at about $61,000. Finally, Forefront Analytics LLC grew its position in shares of Nkarta by 41.0% during the third quarter. Forefront Analytics LLC now owns 39,452 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 11,473 shares in the last quarter. 80.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Nkarta

Nkarta, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Leveraging proprietary activation and expansion technologies, Nkarta aims to harness the innate tumor-killing properties of NK cells while incorporating targeted immuno-engineering approaches to enhance safety, potency and persistence in patients. The company’s platform supports both allogeneic cell manufacturing and genetic modifications to generate chimeric antigen receptor-expressing NK cell candidates designed to address a range of hematologic and solid tumors.

Nkarta’s lead program, NKX019, is an anti-CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy in early-phase clinical trials for relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies.