Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Short Interest Up 20.8% in December

Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) saw a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,280,000 shares, an increase of 20.8% from the December 15th total of 1,060,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 206,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 6.2 days. Approximately 2.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AURA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Aura Biosciences from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Aura Biosciences in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.00.

Aura Biosciences Stock Performance

AURA stock traded up $0.10 during trading on Friday, hitting $7.77. 112,088 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 146,793. Aura Biosciences has a 1 year low of $6.63 and a 1 year high of $12.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $388.11 million, a PE ratio of -4.49 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a 50-day moving average of $8.62 and a 200-day moving average of $8.88.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The company reported ($0.42) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.44) by $0.02. Sell-side analysts expect that Aura Biosciences will post -1.66 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Aura Biosciences

In other news, insider Janet Jill Hopkins sold 11,822 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.36, for a total value of $110,653.92. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 151,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,419,846.48. This represents a 7.23 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 9,200 shares of Aura Biosciences stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.74, for a total value of $98,808.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 320,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,443,748.78. This trade represents a 2.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,575 shares of company stock valued at $215,401 in the last 90 days. 5.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AURA. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 3.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 754,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,725,000 after acquiring an additional 26,841 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 4.1% in 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. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in shares of Aura Biosciences in the third quarter worth $1,037,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,668,960 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,571,000 after purchasing an additional 215,597 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 256.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 61,010 shares of the company’s stock worth $544,000 after acquiring an additional 43,897 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.75% of the company’s stock.

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.