Stock in Focus: Nkarta, Inc. (NKTX)

Company Profile:

Nkarta, Inc., a a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes cell therapies for cancer treatment. The company’s approach for cellular immunotherapy involves chimeric antigen receptors on the surface of a natural killer (NK) cell that enable the cell to recognize specific proteins or antigens that are present on the surface of tumor cells. Its two co-lead product candidates are NKX101, which is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia or higher risk myelodysplastic syndromes; and NKX019, a pre-clinical product, which is based on the ability to treat various B cell malignancies by targeting the CD19 antigen found on these types of cancerous cells. The company has a research collaboration agreement with CRISPR Therapeutics AG. Nkarta, Inc. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in South San Francisco, California.

Recent News:

On May 16, 2022, the company announced the appointment of David R. Shook, MD, as Vice President, Clinical Development. Dr. Shook is a practicing pediatric hematologist, oncologist, and transplanter, and an early pioneer of natural killer (NK) cell therapy.

As of March 31, 2022, Nkarta had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments of $219.1 million. Research and development (R&D) expenses were $19.6 million for the first quarter of 2022. Nkarta expects its current cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund its current operating plan into 2025.

Fundamental Analysis:

Ninestocks analyzes several different financial aspects:

Price to Book Value – P/BV, a ratio used to compare book value to its current market price, to gauge whether a stock is valued properly.

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Price to Earnings – PE, the ratio for valuing a company that measures its current share price relative to its earnings per share (EPS).

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Discounted cash flow – DCF, a valuation method used to estimate the value of an investment based on its expected future cash flows.

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Return on Assets – ROA, indicates how profitable a company is in relation to its total assets, how efficiently uses assets to generate a profit.

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Return on Equity – ROE, a measure of financial performance calculated by dividing net income by equity. a gauge of profitability and efficiency.

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Debt to Equity – evaluate financial leverage, reflects the ability of equity to cover outstanding debts in the event of a business downturn.

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Conclusion:

NKTX receives outperform rating in price to book value and discounted cash flow. Technical indicators signal the bullish signs, as there is a bullish crossover in both the Stochastic oscillator and the MACD. The RSI stands at 52.1 with positive bias. We rate Nkarta, Inc. (NKTX) a STRONG BUY.