Jennison Associates LLC Buys Shares of 176,680 Oruka Therapeutics, Inc. $ORKA

Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Oruka Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORKA) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 176,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,666,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Oruka Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Oruka Therapeutics by 464.0% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 2,306 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Oruka Therapeutics by 47.2% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Oruka Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. bought a new position in Oruka Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $39,000. 56.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Lawrence Otto Klein sold 1,729 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.69, for a total value of $120,494.01. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 925,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,503,670.20. This represents a 0.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Joana Goncalves sold 7,947 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.28, for a total transaction of $550,568.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 32,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,266,703.04. This trade represents a 19.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 188,406 shares of company stock valued at $12,019,683 in the last 90 days. 23.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Wedbush set a $165.00 price target on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Oruka Therapeutics from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on Oruka Therapeutics from $78.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $180.00 target price on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Oruka Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Oruka Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $134.30.

Oruka Therapeutics Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of ORKA opened at $94.32 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.33. Oruka Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $12.84 and a 1-year high of $97.78. The company has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.62 and a beta of -0.35.

Oruka Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ORKA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.48) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.52) by $0.04. As a group, research analysts forecast that Oruka Therapeutics, Inc. will post -2.06 earnings per share for the current year.

About Oruka Therapeutics

Oruka Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical?stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel peptide?based therapies for oncology. The company’s proprietary stapled peptide platform is designed to selectively disrupt intracellular protein–protein interactions that drive tumor growth and immune evasion. By combining the specificity of biologics with the cell?permeability of small molecules, Oruka aims to target cancer pathways that have been historically considered “undruggable.”

The company’s lead candidate, ONCT-01, is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for patients with advanced solid tumors, assessing safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy.