Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) Share Price Passes Below 50-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Shares of Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRA) crossed below its fifty day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a fifty day moving average of $9.92 and traded as low as $8.02. Atara Biotherapeutics shares last traded at $8.13, with a volume of 28,911 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on ATRA shares. Freedom Capital raised shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group set a $13.00 target price on shares of Atara Biotherapeutics and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Atara Biotherapeutics from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $9.50.

Atara Biotherapeutics Trading Down 5.8%

The company has a 50-day moving average price of $9.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $7.35. The stock has a market cap of $73.25 million, a P/E ratio of -12.13 and a beta of 0.08.

Atara Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:ATRA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $0.52 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 million. Atara Biotherapeutics had a negative return on equity of 79.12% and a negative net margin of 40.91%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc. will post -0.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Atara Biotherapeutics

In related news, major shareholder Innovation Ltd Panacea sold 313,446 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.10, for a total transaction of $3,165,804.60. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,011,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,211,100. This represents a 23.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Anhco Nguyen sold 5,241 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.13, for a total value of $47,850.33. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 137,837 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,258,451.81. This represents a 3.66% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last three months, insiders sold 321,101 shares of company stock worth $3,235,695. Insiders own 41.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 60,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $464,000 after buying an additional 1,457 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in Atara Biotherapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $327,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Atara Biotherapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Atara Biotherapeutics by 6.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 203,438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,915,000 after purchasing an additional 12,677 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in Atara Biotherapeutics by 183.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 63,816 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $914,000 after purchasing an additional 41,302 shares during the period. 70.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Atara Biotherapeutics

Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel T-cell immunotherapies to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease. Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, Atara leverages its proprietary off-the-shelf allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-directed T-cell platform to generate engineered cell therapies designed to target EBV-driven malignancies and immune-mediated disorders.

The company’s lead product candidate, tabelecleucel, is an off-the-shelf, EBV-specific T-cell therapy in clinical development for the treatment of EBV-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) and other EBV-associated cancers.