Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Cut to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRAFree Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Freedom Capital upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 target price on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.50.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics Stock Performance

ATRA stock opened at $8.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $77.58 million, a P/E ratio of -12.85 and a beta of 0.12. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.20. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 52 week low of $3.92 and a 52 week high of $19.15.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRAGet Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $0.52 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 million. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative net margin of 40.91% and a negative return on equity of 79.12%. Sell-side analysts predict that Atara Biotherapeutics will post -0.16 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atara Biotherapeutics

In other news, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,241 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.13, for a total transaction of $47,850.33. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 137,837 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,258,451.81. This represents a 3.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 41.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ATRA. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 2.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 60,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $464,000 after purchasing an additional 1,457 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 20,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 3,779 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $181,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 58.6% in the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 30,040 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 11,104 shares during the last quarter. 70.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

(Get Free Report)

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.

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