Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) Short Interest Update

Aura Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:AURA) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,120,000 shares, a decline of 13.2% from the February 13th total of 1,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 158,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.1 days. Currently, 2.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aura Biosciences news, insider Los Pinos Elisabet De sold 15,955 shares of Aura Biosciences stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $7.67, for a total value of $122,374.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 304,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,336,987.64. The trade was a 4.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 23,045 shares of company stock valued at $177,242 over the last 90 days. 5.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aura Biosciences

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AURA. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aura Biosciences by 2.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 138,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 3,612 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 3.7% during 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 period. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in Aura Biosciences during the third quarter worth about $1,037,000. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 256.5% during the third 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 period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Aura Biosciences by 4.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,008,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,990,000 after acquiring an additional 39,379 shares during the period. 96.75% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Lifesci Capital upgraded Aura Biosciences to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $23.00.

Aura Biosciences Stock Performance

AURA stock opened at $7.49 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $374.13 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.33 and a beta of 0.30. Aura Biosciences has a 1 year low of $6.63 and a 1 year high of $12.38. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $7.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.66.

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.