Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Insider Sells $160,600.00 in Stock

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) insider John Leite sold 4,015 shares of Veracyte stock in a transaction on Monday, September 21st. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 3.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Veracyte Stock Up 10.8%

Shares of Veracyte stock opened at $48.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.43 and a beta of 1.93. Veracyte, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $29.45 and a fifty-two week high of $60.91. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $46.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.78.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $150.32 million for 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 firm’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Veracyte, Inc. will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Veracyte

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Veracyte during the 2nd quarter worth $792,058,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Veracyte by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,881,090 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $92,787,000 after acquiring an additional 80,614 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Veracyte during the 2nd quarter worth $84,078,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Veracyte by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,900,882 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,039,000 after acquiring an additional 9,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Veracyte by 64.9% during 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 acquiring an additional 833,543 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VCYT. Zacks Research raised shares of Veracyte from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Stephens decreased their price objective on Veracyte from $68.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. 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. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.78.

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.