Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) Trading Up 9.3% – What’s Next?

Shares of Aurora Innovation, Inc. (NASDAQ:AUR) traded up 9.3% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $7.38 and last traded at $7.4550. Approximately 16,714,471 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 29% from the average session volume of 23,403,908 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on AUR. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $14.00 price target on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Aurora Innovation from $4.70 to $7.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Northland Securities started coverage on Aurora Innovation in a research note on Friday, May 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. Craig Hallum initiated coverage on shares of Aurora Innovation in a research note on Friday, June 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $18.00 target price for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Aurora Innovation in a report on Monday, April 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.25.

Aurora Innovation Price Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $6.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.17. The firm has a market cap of $13.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.07 and a beta of 2.63.

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.12) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.97 million. Aurora Innovation had a negative return on equity of 40.45% and a negative net margin of 20,775.00%.The business’s revenue was down 66.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Aurora Innovation, Inc. will post -0.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Aurora Innovation

In other news, Director Reid Hoffman sold 5,498,487 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.81, for a total transaction of $42,943,183.47. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 77,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $605,275. This represents a 98.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David M. Wehner acquired 82,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $6.04 per share, with a total value of $498,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 246,519 shares in the company, valued at $1,488,974.76. This represents a 50.30% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 7,048,487 shares of company stock worth $54,295,119 in the last quarter. 8.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aurora Innovation

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Aurora Innovation by 964.9% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 8,019 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 7,266 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 4,070.6% in the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 17,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,000 after purchasing an additional 17,422 shares during the last quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Aurora Innovation by 24.2% in the first quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 60,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,000 after acquiring an additional 11,822 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aurora Innovation by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 76,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 6,067 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Aurora Innovation by 130.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 30,036,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,749,000 after buying an additional 16,975,927 shares during the period. 44.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Aurora Innovation Company Profile

Aurora Innovation, Inc is a technology company specializing in the development of self-driving vehicle systems for both passenger and commercial applications. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Aurora has built an end-to-end platform—known as the Aurora Driver—that integrates proprietary software, machine learning algorithms and a suite of sensors (LiDAR, radar and cameras) to enable vehicles to operate safely and efficiently in diverse driving environments.

The company’s core business revolves around designing, testing and deploying its autonomy stack on vehicles from established automotive and transportation partners.