Analysts Set Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) PT at $23.00

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

AURA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Friday, October 18th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI upgraded Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Lifesci Capital upgraded Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th.

Aura Biosciences Stock Down 5.0 %

NASDAQ AURA opened at $9.47 on Tuesday. Aura Biosciences has a fifty-two week low of $6.63 and a fifty-two week high of $12.38. The business has a fifty day moving average of $9.82 and a 200-day moving average of $8.53. The stock has a market cap of $473.04 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.47 and a beta of 0.33.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.42) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by $0.02. As a group, analysts anticipate that Aura Biosciences will post -1.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Aura Biosciences

In other news, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 24,992 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.04, for a total value of $300,903.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 329,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,971,357.88. This represents a 7.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Mark Plavsic sold 7,383 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.85, for a total transaction of $72,722.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 121,132 shares in the company, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,259 shares of company stock worth $780,699. 5.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aura Biosciences

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. American International Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 27.4% in the first quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 17,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,000 after buying an additional 3,782 shares during the period. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. boosted its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 111,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $873,000 after acquiring an additional 11,200 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Aura Biosciences in the first quarter valued at approximately $144,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 48,549 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 39.6% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 63,483 shares of the company’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 18,011 shares in the last quarter. 96.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.