HC Wainwright Reiterates Buy Rating for Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)

HC Wainwright reissued their buy rating on shares of Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) in a research note published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $22.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on AURA. Evercore ISI raised Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. BTIG Research raised their price objective on shares of Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Aura Biosciences from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Lifesci Capital raised Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a report on Friday, October 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.00.

Aura Biosciences Stock Performance

Shares of Aura Biosciences stock opened at $9.47 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $473.04 million, a P/E ratio of -5.47 and a beta of 0.33. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.53. Aura Biosciences has a twelve month low of $6.63 and a twelve month high of $12.38.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.02. On average, equities analysts forecast that Aura Biosciences will post -1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Mark Plavsic sold 7,383 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.85, for a total transaction of $72,722.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 121,132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,193,150.20. The trade was a 5.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 24,992 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.04, for a total transaction of $300,903.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 329,847 shares in the company, valued at $3,971,357.88. This represents a 7.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,259 shares of company stock valued at $780,699. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aura Biosciences

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AURA. American Century Companies Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aura Biosciences in the 2nd quarter worth $119,000. American International Group Inc. lifted its stake in Aura Biosciences by 27.4% in the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 17,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after buying an additional 3,782 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Aura Biosciences during the first quarter worth about $144,000. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aura Biosciences in the 3rd quarter valued at about $169,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 256.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 61,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $544,000 after acquiring an additional 43,897 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.75% of the company’s stock.

Aura Biosciences Company Profile

Aura Biosciences, Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, develops precision immunotherapies to treat a range of solid tumors. The company's proprietary platform enables the targeting of a range of solid tumors using virus-like particles conjugated with drugs or loaded with nucleic acids to create virus-like drug conjugates.