Short Interest in Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Decreases By 8.7%

Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA - Get Free Report) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,050,000 shares, a drop of 8.7% from the September 30th total of 1,150,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 184,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.7 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aura Biosciences

In other Aura Biosciences news, CTO Mark Plavsic sold 7,383 shares of Aura Biosciences stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.85, for a total transaction of $72,722.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 121,132 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,193,150.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CTO Mark Plavsic sold 7,383 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.85, for a total transaction of $72,722.55. Following the sale, the chief technology officer now owns 121,132 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,193,150.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 9,200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.74, for a total value of $98,808.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 320,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,443,748.78. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,259 shares of company stock valued at $780,699 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Aura Biosciences

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Aura Biosciences in the third quarter worth about $169,000. Long Focus Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 113.4% in the second quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,057,188 shares of the company's stock valued at $7,992,000 after acquiring an additional 561,766 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Aura Biosciences by 14.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 64,452 shares of the company's stock valued at $487,000 after purchasing an additional 8,194 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Aura Biosciences by 26.3% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 72,100 shares of the company's stock valued at $545,000 after purchasing an additional 15,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Aura Biosciences by 20.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 250,375 shares of the company's stock worth $1,892,000 after purchasing an additional 41,711 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.75% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AURA. BTIG Research boosted their target price on shares of Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on Aura Biosciences from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Lifesci Capital raised shares of Aura Biosciences to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. JMP Securities increased their price objective on shares of Aura Biosciences from $19.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "market outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Aura Biosciences from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aura Biosciences currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $23.00.

Aura Biosciences Stock Down 4.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AURA traded down $0.47 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $10.24. The stock had a trading volume of 88,859 shares, compared to its average volume of 175,797. Aura Biosciences has a fifty-two week low of $5.99 and a fifty-two week high of $12.38. The company's 50-day moving average price is $9.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.25. The company has a market capitalization of $507.32 million, a P/E ratio of -5.76 and a beta of 0.37.

Aura Biosciences (NASDAQ:AURA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported ($0.41) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.45) by $0.04. Research analysts expect that Aura Biosciences will post -1.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.