Castleark Management LLC Sells 29,370 Shares of Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA)

Castleark Management LLC trimmed its position in Natera, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTRA) by 41.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 42,030 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 29,370 shares during the quarter. Castleark Management LLC’s holdings in Natera were worth $6,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Natera by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,316,470 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,949,697,000 after buying an additional 879,463 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Natera by 134.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,742,428 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,067,327,000 after acquiring an additional 3,871,862 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Natera by 43.7% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,701,425 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,060,836,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036,396 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Natera by 15.7% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,240,041 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $512,898,000 after acquiring an additional 439,778 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Natera by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,232,681 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $355,809,000 after purchasing an additional 142,201 shares during the period. 99.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Natera

In related news, CEO Steven Leonard Chapman sold 87,272 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.40, for a total value of $12,514,804.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 203,354 shares in the company, valued at $29,160,963.60. This represents a 30.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Solomon Moshkevich sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.29, for a total value of $859,740.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 143,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,600,516.72. This represents a 4.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 152,436 shares of company stock worth $22,019,079. 7.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Natera Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NTRA stock opened at $154.53 on Wednesday. Natera, Inc. has a twelve month low of $92.14 and a twelve month high of $183.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $149.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $157.15. The company has a quick ratio of 4.23, a current ratio of 4.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of -87.80 and a beta of 1.79.

Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The medical research company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.59) by $0.09. Natera had a negative return on equity of 26.23% and a negative net margin of 14.01%. The company had revenue of $501.83 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $446.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.56) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 36.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Natera, Inc. will post -1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Natera from $211.00 to $218.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Natera from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Natera from $176.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Natera from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 price target on shares of Natera in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Natera presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $182.12.

Natera Profile

Natera, Inc, a diagnostics company, develops and commercializes molecular testing services worldwide. Its products include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for chromosomal abnormalities of a fetus, as well as in twin pregnancies; Horizon carrier screening test for individuals and couples determine if they are carriers of genetic variations that cause certain genetic conditions; Vistara single-gene NIPT screens for 25 single-gene disorders that cause severe skeletal, cardiac, and neurological conditions; Spectrum, preimplantation genetic tests for couples undergoing IVF; Anora that analyzes miscarriage tissue from women; Empower, a hereditary cancer screening test; and non-invasive prenatal paternity product, which allows a couple to establish paternity without waiting for the child to be born.