SunTrust began coverage on shares of Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) in a report issued on Thursday morning, The Fly reports. The firm issued a buy rating on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

In other Kite Pharma news, VP Marc Better sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.07, for a total transaction of $639,630.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,180.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Cynthia M. Butitta sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.45, for a total value of $1,296,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 75,507 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,527,580.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Several hedge funds and institutional investors recently modified their holdings of KITE. Neuberger Berman Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Kite Pharma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $807,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Kite Pharma by 39.9% in the fourth quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 15,471 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $953,000 after buying an additional 4,412 shares during the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Kite Pharma by 74.0% in the fourth quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 39,545 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,437,000 after buying an additional 16,820 shares during the last quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Kite Pharma during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,496,000. Finally, Russell Frank Co boosted its position in shares of Kite Pharma by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. Russell Frank Co now owns 9,409 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $589,000 after buying an additional 2,839 shares during the last quarter.

Several other research firms also recently commented on KITE. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Kite Pharma from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Tuesday, November 24th. Canaccord Genuity reissued a buy rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Kite Pharma in a report on Friday, November 13th. Goldman Sachs began coverage on Kite Pharma in a report on Wednesday, November 18th. They issued a buy rating and a $111.00 price objective for the company. Standpoint Research downgraded Kite Pharma from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, November 13th. Finally, Mizuho reissued a positive rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Kite Pharma in a report on Friday, November 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Kite Pharma currently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $86.90.

Shares of Kite Pharma (NASDAQ:KITE) opened at 44.85 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.11. The company’s market capitalization is $1.98 billion. Kite Pharma has a 12 month low of $44.01 and a 12 month high of $89.84.

Kite Pharma (NASDAQ:KITE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 12th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.38) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.64) by $0.26. The company earned $5.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.06 million. Kite Pharma’s revenue was up 50900.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Kite Pharma will post ($2.15) EPS for the current year.

Kite Pharma, Inc., is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on the development and commercialization of cancer immunotherapy products to eradicate cancer cells. The Company does this using its engineered autologous cell therapy (NASDAQ:KITE), which is an approach to the treatment of cancer. eACT involves the genetic engineering of T cells to express either chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or T cell receptors (TCRs). It is conducting a Phase II clinical trial of a TCR-based therapy and multiple Phase I-IIa clinical trials of CAR- and TCR-based therapies. The Company’s lead product candidate KTE-C19, is a CAR-based therapy, for the treatment of refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL) and transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL). It is developing a pipeline of eACT-based product candidates for the treatment of advanced solid and hematological malignancies: CD19CAR, KTE-C19CAR and EGFRvlll CAR, among others.

12 Month Chart for NASDAQ:KITE

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