Rocket Pharmaceuticals’ (RCKT) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by stock analysts at Wedbush in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on RCKT. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Chardan Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $11.00 target price on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $2.95 target price on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.12.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Stock Up 3.4%

Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock traded up $0.09 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $2.57. The stock had a trading volume of 1,003,432 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,515,274. Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a 52-week low of $2.42 and a 52-week high of $5.45. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $3.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.42. The company has a quick ratio of 9.24, a current ratio of 9.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market cap of $281.59 million, a PE ratio of -15.09 and a beta of 0.50.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 10th. The biotechnology company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.22. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.62) EPS. On average, analysts predict that Rocket Pharmaceuticals will post -1.36 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Martin Wilson sold 75,364 shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.40, for a total value of $256,237.60. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 598,489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,034,862.60. The trade was a 11.18% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, COO Christopher Stevens sold 36,658 shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.50, for a total transaction of $128,303.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 505,784 shares in the company, valued at $1,770,244. The trade was a 6.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 125,977 shares of company stock worth $432,273 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 21.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 42.0% in the 1st quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 3,567,372 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,771,000 after buying an additional 1,054,262 shares during the period. Monaco Asset Management SAM acquired a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,483,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,940,000. Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,506,000. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,489,000. 98.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ:RCKT) is a biotechnology company focused on developing gene therapies for rare and devastating diseases. The company uses both ex vivo hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy and in vivo adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy approaches to address conditions with limited or no effective treatment options.

Rocket’s development programs have included marnetegragene autotemcel (RP-L102) for leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, a rare inherited immune disorder; RP-A501 for Danon disease, a genetic heart condition; RP-A601 for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy associated with PKP2 mutations; and RP-L301 for pyruvate kinase deficiency, an inherited blood disorder.