Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Receives $23.00 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $23.00.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AURA. Lifesci Capital raised Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Friday, October 18th. BTIG Research raised their price objective on Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Aura Biosciences from $19.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th.

Aura Biosciences Price Performance

Shares of AURA stock opened at $8.45 on Wednesday. Aura Biosciences has a one year low of $6.63 and a one year high of $12.38. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $8.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $422.09 million, a PE ratio of -4.88 and a beta of 0.26.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.02. As a group, research analysts expect that Aura Biosciences will post -1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aura Biosciences news, insider Janet Jill Hopkins sold 11,822 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.36, for a total transaction of $110,653.92. Following the sale, the insider now owns 151,693 shares in the company, valued at $1,419,846.48. This represents a 7.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Julie B. Feder sold 25,131 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.03, for a total value of $302,325.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 134,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,615,340.28. This represents a 15.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 79,081 shares of company stock worth $891,353. Insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Aura Biosciences

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Aura Biosciences by 3.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 754,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,725,000 after buying an additional 26,841 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in Aura Biosciences during the third quarter valued at about $1,037,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Aura Biosciences by 4.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,008,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,990,000 after purchasing an additional 39,379 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Aura Biosciences by 14.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,668,960 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,571,000 after acquiring an additional 215,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Levin Capital Strategies L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 194.5% during the 2nd quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 327,466 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,476,000 after purchasing an additional 216,266 shares during the last quarter. 96.75% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.