Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on KURA. Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of Kura Oncology from $18.00 to $10.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. BTIG Research lowered shares of Kura Oncology from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of Kura Oncology in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Kura Oncology to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Kura Oncology from $36.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $25.50.

Kura Oncology Trading Up 8.0 %

Shares of KURA opened at $7.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a current ratio of 11.47 and a quick ratio of 11.47. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.58. Kura Oncology has a 1-year low of $6.79 and a 1-year high of $23.48. The stock has a market cap of $633.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.33 and a beta of 0.85.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.65) by $0.43. The business had revenue of $53.88 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.96 million. Equities analysts forecast that Kura Oncology will post -2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Kura Oncology

In related news, insider Mollie Leoni sold 4,963 shares of Kura Oncology stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.87, for a total transaction of $39,058.81. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 88,253 shares in the company, valued at approximately $694,551.11. The trade was a 5.32 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Thomas James Doyle sold 4,949 shares of Kura Oncology stock in a transaction on 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 owns 88,193 shares in the company, valued at $694,078.91. The trade was a 5.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,729 shares of company stock worth $92,307. 5.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kura Oncology

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KURA. RA Capital Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Kura Oncology during the 4th quarter worth $38,769,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 180.1% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,367,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,618,000 after buying an additional 1,521,954 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Kura Oncology during the 4th quarter worth $8,518,000. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in Kura Oncology during the 4th quarter worth $8,265,000. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. increased its stake in Kura Oncology by 172.0% during the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 1,151,195 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,027,000 after buying an additional 727,987 shares during the period.

Kura Oncology Company Profile

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.