Madison Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 50,518 Vericel Corporation $VCEL

Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 50,518 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,819,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VCEL. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its stake in Vericel by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,664,578 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $59,941,000 after acquiring an additional 169,971 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its stake in Vericel by 174.0% during the 3rd quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 64,387 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,026,000 after acquiring an additional 40,892 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc raised its stake in Vericel by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 583,884 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,026,000 after acquiring an additional 41,018 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Vericel by 90.3% during the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,210,929 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $69,578,000 after acquiring an additional 1,048,864 shares during the period. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP raised its stake in Vericel by 171.1% during the 3rd quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 184,986 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,822,000 after acquiring an additional 116,756 shares during the period.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vericel news, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 3,472 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 75,556 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,460. This trade represents a 4.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through 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.

Vericel Stock Performance

VCEL stock opened at $33.14 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a PE ratio of 78.91 and a beta of 1.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.09. Vericel Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.95 and a fifty-two week high of $45.97.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.68 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.23) earnings per share. Vericel’s quarterly revenue was up 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Vericel Corporation will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on VCEL shares. Leerink Partners restated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $64.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Vericel from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Vericel from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.40.

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.