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

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $22.00 price target on the stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective points to a potential upside of 132.31% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Lifesci Capital upgraded Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Aura Biosciences from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. BTIG Research lifted their target price on Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. JMP Securities lifted their target price on Aura Biosciences from $19.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a report on Friday, October 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aura Biosciences currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $23.00.

Aura Biosciences Trading Down 5.0 %

Shares of Aura Biosciences stock opened at $9.47 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $9.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.51. Aura Biosciences has a 1-year low of $6.63 and a 1-year high of $12.38. The company has a market cap of $473.04 million, a P/E ratio of -5.47 and a beta of 0.33.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.42) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.02. Equities research analysts forecast that Aura Biosciences will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Julie B. Feder sold 25,131 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.03, for a total transaction of $302,325.93. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 134,276 shares in the company, valued at $1,615,340.28. The trade was a 15.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $72,722.55. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 121,132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,193,150.20. This represents a 5.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,259 shares of company stock worth $780,699 over the last quarter. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Long Focus Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 113.4% during the second quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,057,188 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,992,000 after buying an additional 561,766 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 754,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,725,000 after buying an additional 26,841 shares during the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 194.5% during the second quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 327,466 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,476,000 after buying an additional 216,266 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 20.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 250,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,892,000 after buying an additional 41,711 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 51.4% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 143,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after buying an additional 48,549 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.75% of the company’s stock.

About Aura Biosciences

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.