Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Upgraded at Freedom Capital

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) was upgraded by equities researchers at Freedom Capital from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a report on Friday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 target price on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Price Performance

Shares of ATRA stock opened at $9.15 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.03. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 1 year low of $3.92 and a 1 year high of $19.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $82.44 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.66 and a beta of -0.30.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) 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. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative net margin of 40.91% and a negative return on equity of 79.12%. The business had revenue of $0.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.90 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that Atara Biotherapeutics will post 0.2 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atara Biotherapeutics

In other news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 313,446 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $3,165,804.60. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,011,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,211,100. This represents a 23.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 41.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 33.8% in the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 26,213 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $376,000 after purchasing an additional 6,622 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $181,000. Walleye Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $220,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in the second quarter worth $327,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 58.6% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 30,040 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 11,104 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.90% of the company’s stock.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

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.