UBS Group AG Sells 17,967 Shares of Vericel Corporation $VCEL

UBS Group AG decreased its holdings in Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 167,510 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 17,967 shares during the quarter. UBS Group AG’s holdings in Vericel were worth $6,032,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Huntington National Bank raised its stake in Vericel by 51.3% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 805 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vericel by 116.5% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 970 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vericel in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 26.0% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,458 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Vericel by 13.7% during the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,937 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $125,000 after purchasing an additional 353 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on VCEL shares. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings cut Vericel from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Leerink Partners reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vericel

In related 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 value of $121,520.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,644,460. The trade was a 4.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 7.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Vericel Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VCEL opened at $35.40 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.05. Vericel Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.95 and a 1 year high of $45.97. The firm has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a PE ratio of 84.29 and a beta of 1.15.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $68.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.23) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Vericel Corporation will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.