Insider Selling: Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) Insider Sells $603,150.00 in Stock

Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) insider Sean Flynn sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.21, for a total value of $603,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $66,225.87. The trade was a 90.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Vericel Stock Up 3.2%

Shares of Vericel stock opened at $41.69 on Thursday. Vericel Corporation has a 12 month low of $28.95 and a 12 month high of $43.57. The stock has a market cap of $2.13 billion, a PE ratio of 99.26 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.69.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $68.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.68 million. Vericel had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 7.35%.Vericel’s quarterly revenue was up 30.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.23) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Vericel Corporation will post 0.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VCEL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Leerink Partners reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Vericel in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Truist Financial lowered 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. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 14th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Vericel from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vericel currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vericel

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VCEL. Glenmede Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of Vericel by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 15,097 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $486,000 after buying an additional 2,348 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Vericel by 19.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,098,771 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,347,000 after buying an additional 180,761 shares during the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in Vericel by 26.3% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 61,233 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,970,000 after acquiring an additional 12,767 shares in the last quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC raised its position in Vericel by 1.6% during the first quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 132,063 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,248,000 after acquiring an additional 2,094 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Vericel in the first quarter valued at approximately $405,000.

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.