Start here if you're new
what it is
Atara makes off-the-shelf immune cell treatments for cancer and autoimmune disease, with one lead therapy carrying most of the weight.
how it gets paid
Last year Atara Biotherapeutic made $129M in revenue. collaboration revenue was the main engine at $119M, or 92% of sales.
what just happened
The quarter was weird in the most biotech way possible: revenue hit $119M, but the bigger story is that one regulatory letter still controls the equity.
At a glance
C+ balance sheet — struggling to keep the lights on
20/100 earnings predictability — expect surprises
2.0x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
-$11.41 fy2024 eps est
$129M fy2024 rev est
xvary composite: 28/100 — weak
What they do
Atara makes off-the-shelf immune cell treatments for cancer and autoimmune disease, with one lead therapy carrying most of the weight.
Atara's edge is speed and convenience. Allogeneic T-cell therapy (donor-derived cells you do not custom-build for each patient, so treatment can be ready faster) matters because waiting is brutal in cancer. The company has 153 employees and its lead therapy already won approvals in 3 markets: the EEA, the U.K., and Switzerland.
How they make money
$129M
annual revenue
collaboration revenue
$119M
+3351%
commercial product revenue
$5M
flat
research and development services
$3M
flat
license and royalty revenue
$2M
flat
The products that matter
lead asset under review
tabelecleucel (tab-cel)
priority review underway
This is the number that mattered when the stock broke. If approval lands, the company gets a future to finance. If it does not, the rest of the page gets a lot harsher.
entire bull case
platform story
allogeneic t-cell platform
pipeline value not quantified here
The platform gives you optionality. In human-speak: there is more science here than one drug. The problem is the current page does not show enough hard numbers to value that optionality with confidence.
science beyond one asset
Key numbers
2.0x
trailing p/e
P/E -> price divided by earnings -> so what: the stock looks cheap on paper, but that clashes with a business that still had a -64.7% operating margin in 2024.
64.7%
operating margin
Operating margin -> profit after running the business -> so what: Atara lost about $0.65 on every $1 of 2024 revenue.
$47M
long-term debt
Long-term debt -> money owed beyond one year -> so what: debt is about the same size as the whole market cap, which leaves you little room for mistakes.
5/100
price stability
Price stability -> how steady the stock trades -> so what: this share price behaves like a loose shopping cart.
Financial health
C+
strength
- balance sheet grade C+ — weak — may struggle to fund operations
- risk rank 5 — safer than 5% of stocks
- price stability 5 / 100
- long-term debt $47M (50% of capital)
C+ — balance sheet grade and long-term debt are flagged. this stock carries more risk than average.
Total return vs. market
Return history isn't available for ATRA right now.
source: institutional data · return history unavailable
What just happened
beat estimates
The quarter was weird in the most biotech way possible: revenue hit $119M, but the bigger story is that one regulatory letter still controls the equity.
Latest-quarter revenue was $119M, up 3351% vs. prior year, and EDGAR shows EPS of $2.93. Contrast that with full-year 2024 EPS of -$11.41 and a -64.7% operating margin from the base business.
$119M
revenue
$2.93
eps
64.7%
operating margin
the number that mattered
$119M matters because it is more than 2.5 times the company's roughly $47M market cap, which tells you one quarter can completely distort the valuation picture.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
ATRA's risk list is unusually concentrated. This is what happens when one drug, one regulator, and one cash runway all sit on the same page.
med
tabelecleucel is the story, so approval risk is the stock
The company-specific problem is simple: if the lead drug stumbles, there is no visible diversified commercial base on this page to absorb the hit.
Impact: the market already showed what a confidence reset looks like with a 57% one-day drop.
med
cash runway ends where the regulatory clock gets uncomfortable
Management said cash lasts through year-end 2026. That is useful. It is also a deadline the market will keep revisiting every quarter.
Impact: if timelines slip, capital raises move from possibility to expectation, and small-cap biotech financing is rarely gentle on existing holders.
med
$47M of long-term debt leaves less room for error
Debt at 50% of capital is manageable only if the business path improves faster than the funding pressure builds.
Impact: when debt and market cap sit near the same number, equity holders are not first in line for comfort.
This is a binary stock: one approval path can revive the story, but the current numbers still show a business losing money hard.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
calendar
the FDA calendar now matters more than the income statement
Priority review is underway, and a Type A meeting is scheduled for Q2 2026. In a stock this small, process updates move price because the final decision is so binary.
risk
cash runway and approval timing are running on the same clock
Management said cash extends through year-end 2026. If the regulatory path drifts beyond that window, financing pressure becomes the next headline.
metric
$47M of debt matters when the market cap is also about $47M
That is the contrast frame to keep in your head. It does not guarantee distress, but it does tell you why the balance sheet gets no free pass.
trend
the tape is telling you this is event-driven
A 52-week range of $4–$19 and a 5 / 100 price-stability score are not noise. They are the market's way of saying confidence is conditional.
Analyst rankings
earnings predictability
20 / 100 low
in human-speak, analysts do not see clean repeatability in the numbers
price target coverage
n/a thin
current page does not show a usable target range, which is common when coverage is sparse or unstable
estimate depth
n/a limited
when the forward estimate stack is thin, your margin for error shrinks
consensus confidence
n/a unclear
the page gives you one hard score and several blanks. that is a signal too
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutional ownership data for ATRA is being compiled.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
n/a
n/a
$4
current price
n/a
target midpoint · n/a from current
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