StockNews.com Begins Coverage on Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA)

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) in a research note published on Friday. The firm issued a hold rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on ATRA. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from an outperform rating to an in-line rating in a research report on Thursday, November 9th. Mizuho cut Atara Biotherapeutics from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, November 9th. Finally, HC Wainwright cut Atara Biotherapeutics from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, November 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Atara Biotherapeutics presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $28.00.

Atara Biotherapeutics Price Performance

Shares of ATRA stock opened at $0.56 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $56.87 million, a P/E ratio of -0.20 and a beta of 0.98. Atara Biotherapeutics has a one year low of $0.20 and a one year high of $5.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $1.67.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 1st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.66) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.63) by ($0.03). Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative net margin of 6,390.31% and a negative return on equity of 783.31%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that Atara Biotherapeutics will post -2.62 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Carol Giltner Gallagher purchased 179,020 shares of Atara Biotherapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $0.22 per share, with a total value of $39,384.40. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 368,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $81,056.36. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 41,223 shares of company stock valued at $16,077. 4.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Atara Biotherapeutics

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in Atara Biotherapeutics by 3,249.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 566,896 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $839,000 after acquiring an additional 549,969 shares during the last quarter. Redmile Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Redmile Group LLC now owns 6,280,813 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $9,296,000 after buying an additional 232,690 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,667,594 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,828,000 after buying an additional 947,341 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 43.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,651,533 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,444,000 after buying an additional 502,899 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Atara Biotherapeutics by 404.8% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 844,452 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,250,000 after buying an additional 677,173 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.79% of the company’s stock.

Atara Biotherapeutics Company Profile

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc develops therapies for patients with solid tumors, hematologic cancers, and autoimmune diseases in the United States. Its lead product includes Tab-cel (tabelecleucel), a T-cell immunotherapy program that is in Phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of epstein-barr virus (EBV) driven post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, as well as nasopharyngeal carcinoma.