John Leite Sells 4,015 Shares of Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Stock

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) insider John Leite sold 4,015 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.00, for a total transaction of $160,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 124,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,973,160. The trade was a 3.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Veracyte Price Performance

NASDAQ:VCYT traded up $1.84 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $43.36. 1,472,465 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,117,563. The firm has a market cap of $3.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.75 and a beta of 1.93. Veracyte, Inc. has a 52-week low of $29.45 and a 52-week high of $60.91. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.56.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $150.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $144.59 million. Veracyte had a net margin of 20.37% and a return on equity of 9.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.44 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Veracyte, Inc. will post 1.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VCYT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on Veracyte in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Veracyte in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Veracyte from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Veracyte from $52.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, Stephens cut their price target on shares of Veracyte from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.78.

Institutional Trading of Veracyte

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Veracyte in the 2nd quarter valued at $792,058,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Veracyte by 2.9% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,881,090 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $92,787,000 after buying an additional 80,614 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Veracyte by 64.9% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,117,046 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $68,190,000 after buying an additional 833,543 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Veracyte by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,900,882 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,039,000 after buying an additional 9,429 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Veracyte by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,448,897 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $46,669,000 after buying an additional 185,929 shares during the period.

About Veracyte

Veracyte, Inc is a diagnostics company that develops and commercializes genomic tests designed to help physicians diagnose cancer, assess disease risk and guide treatment decisions. The company combines genomic data with bioinformatics and machine-learning technologies to provide clinically actionable information from patient tissue samples.

Veracyte’s portfolio includes Afirma tests for evaluating thyroid nodules, Decipher tests for assessing the risk and biological characteristics of prostate cancer, and Prosigna for classifying and evaluating recurrence risk in certain breast cancers.