StockNews.com Upgrades Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Friday.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on KURA. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $28.00 price target on shares of Kura Oncology in a report on Thursday, February 6th. BTIG Research downgraded Kura Oncology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $36.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Kura Oncology from $27.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $25.50.

Kura Oncology Stock Down 4.5 %

Kura Oncology stock opened at $5.89 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $475.65 million, a P/E ratio of -2.50 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 11.47 and a current ratio of 11.47. Kura Oncology has a fifty-two week low of $5.82 and a fifty-two week high of $23.48. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.45.

Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.65) by $0.43. The firm had revenue of $53.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.96 million. Equities research analysts expect that Kura Oncology will post -2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Kura Oncology

In other Kura Oncology news, SVP Thomas James Doyle sold 4,949 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.87, for a total transaction of $38,948.63. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 88,193 shares in the company, valued at approximately $694,078.91. This represents a 5.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Mollie Leoni sold 4,963 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.87, for a total transaction of $39,058.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 88,253 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $694,551.11. This trade represents a 5.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,729 shares of company stock worth $92,307 over the last three months. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Kura Oncology

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KURA. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Kura Oncology by 71.6% in the fourth quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC now owns 7,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 3,061 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kura Oncology in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $87,000. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Kura Oncology in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $90,000. Corton Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in Kura Oncology during the 4th quarter valued at $99,000. Finally, Optimize Financial Inc purchased a new position in Kura Oncology during the fourth quarter worth $100,000.

About Kura Oncology

Kura Oncology, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops medicines for the treatment of cancer. The company’s pipeline consists of small molecule product candidates that target cancer. Its lead product candidates are ziftomenib, an orally bioavailable small molecule inhibitor of the menin-KMT2A interaction for the treatment of genetically defined subsets of acute leukemias, including acute myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia; tipifarnib, an orally bioavailable farnesyl transferase inhibitor combination with alpelisib for patients with PIK3CA-dependent HNSCC; and KO-2806, a farnesyl transferase inhibitor for the treatment of solid tumors.