Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) Short Interest Update

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) saw a large growth in short interest in May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totaling 546,470 shares, a growth of 78.5% from the April 30th total of 306,093 shares. Currently, 10.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 7,386,437 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.1 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ATRA. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 price objective on Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Freedom Capital raised Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Price Performance

Shares of ATRA traded down $0.42 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $9.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 30,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,087,373. Atara Biotherapeutics has a 12-month low of $3.92 and a 12-month high of $19.15. The stock has a market cap of $85.41 million, a PE ratio of -14.15 and a beta of 0.11. The company’s 50 day moving average is $6.66 and its 200 day moving average is $8.84.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.29) earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $0.52 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.90 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Atara Biotherapeutics will post 0.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Atara Biotherapeutics

In other news, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,241 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 137,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,258,451.81. The trade was a 3.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 313,446 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total value of $3,165,804.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 321,101 shares of company stock valued at $3,235,695. Corporate insiders own 41.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Atara Biotherapeutics

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 60,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $464,000 after acquiring an additional 1,457 shares during the last quarter. 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 worth $368,000 after purchasing an additional 3,779 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Atara Biotherapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 33.8% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new position in Atara Biotherapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $181,000. 70.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.