Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Trading Down 6.8% – Should You Sell?

Kura Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:KURA)’s stock price dropped 6.8% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $11.18 and last traded at $11.26. 597,312 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 1,615,584 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.08.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KURA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $24.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $24.00 price target on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen raised Kura Oncology from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, CLSA set a $24.00 target price on Kura Oncology in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.46.

Kura Oncology Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 6.15, a quick ratio of 6.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.38 and a beta of 0.35. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $9.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.25.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.83) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.88) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $18.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.97 million. Kura Oncology had a negative return on equity of 141.95% and a negative net margin of 411.19%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Kura Oncology, Inc. will post -3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kura Oncology news, insider Mollie Leoni sold 84,929 shares of Kura Oncology stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.82, for a total transaction of $834,002.78. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 182,345 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,790,627.90. This trade represents a 31.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 7.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kura Oncology

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its position in Kura Oncology by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,931,090 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587,959 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Kura Oncology by 101.6% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 2,224,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121,228 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kura Oncology by 111.6% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,830,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,020,000 after purchasing an additional 965,256 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kura Oncology by 36.6% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,062,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,816,000 after purchasing an additional 820,020 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Kura Oncology by 63.0% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,911,886 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,032,000 after purchasing an additional 738,761 shares during the last quarter.

Kura Oncology Company Profile

Kura Oncology, Inc (NASDAQ: KURA) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of targeted oncology therapies. Headquartered in La Jolla, California, the company leverages expertise in molecular biology and precision medicine to identify key drivers of cancer growth and design small-molecule inhibitors that block those pathways. Kura’s research platform integrates genomic insights with medicinal chemistry to advance candidates against well-validated targets in solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

The company’s lead clinical candidate, tipifarnib, is a farnesyltransferase inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and various non-small cell lung cancers.