Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $55.40.

VCEL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Vericel from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Leerink Partners reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $64.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th.

Vericel Stock Performance

Shares of VCEL opened at $34.73 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $33.72 and its 200 day moving average is $36.04. Vericel has a fifty-two week low of $28.95 and a fifty-two week high of $45.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.77 billion, a PE ratio of 82.69 and a beta of 1.15.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.03. Vericel had a net margin of 7.35% and a return on equity of 6.41%. The business had revenue of $68.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $63.68 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.23) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Vericel will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vericel news, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 3,472 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $121,520.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 75,556 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,460. The trade was a 4.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 7.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,664,578 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $59,941,000 after purchasing an additional 169,971 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 174.0% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 64,387 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,026,000 after purchasing an additional 40,892 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 583,884 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $21,026,000 after purchasing an additional 41,018 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 90.3% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,210,929 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $69,578,000 after purchasing an additional 1,048,864 shares during the period. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 171.1% during the third quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 184,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,822,000 after purchasing an additional 116,756 shares during the period.

Vericel Company Profile

Vericel Corporation is a biotechnology company specializing in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of cell-based therapies for patients with severe diseases and conditions. The company’s expertise lies in regenerative medicine, where it harnesses the power of autologous cell processing to create products designed to restore function and promote healing in damaged tissues.

Vericel currently markets two FDA-approved therapies. MACI® (autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane) is indicated for the repair of symptomatic cartilage defects of the knee in adult patients.