Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,420,000 shares, a growth of 19.3% from the March 15th total of 1,190,000 shares. Currently, 3.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 250,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AURA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Lifesci Capital upgraded Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. HC Wainwright set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Finally, JMP Securities set a $19.00 target price on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.75.

Aura Biosciences Price Performance

AURA stock opened at $5.36 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $6.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $269.21 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.10 and a beta of 0.43. Aura Biosciences has a fifty-two week low of $4.74 and a fifty-two week high of $12.38.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 24th. The company reported ($0.52) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.43) by ($0.09). Research analysts expect that Aura Biosciences will post -1.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Conor Kilroy sold 7,162 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.49, for a total transaction of $39,319.38. Following the sale, the insider now owns 179,313 shares in the company, valued at $984,428.37. This represents a 3.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 15,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.67, for a total transaction of $122,374.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 304,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,336,987.64. This represents a 4.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 31,104 shares of company stock worth $221,486. Corporate insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aura Biosciences

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Long Focus Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 123.9% during the 4th quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC now owns 2,537,774 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,861,000 after purchasing an additional 1,404,228 shares in the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. lifted its position in Aura Biosciences by 169.1% during the fourth quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 1,247,619 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,255,000 after purchasing an additional 783,984 shares during the period. B Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Aura Biosciences during the fourth quarter worth about $3,885,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,668,960 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,571,000 after buying an additional 215,597 shares during the period. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 43.3% in the 4th quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 390,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,212,000 after buying an additional 118,000 shares in the last quarter. 96.75% of the stock is currently owned by 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.