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 research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

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

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 1.8%

Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $2.53 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $3.35 and a two-hundred 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 $277.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -14.85 and a beta of 0.50. Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $2.42 and a 12 month high of $5.45.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The biotechnology company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.22. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.62) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Rocket Pharmaceuticals will post -1.36 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Rocket Pharmaceuticals news, COO Christopher Stevens sold 36,658 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.50, for a total value of $128,303.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 505,784 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,770,244. This trade represents a 6.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, General Counsel Martin Wilson sold 75,364 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 598,489 shares in the company, valued at $2,034,862.60. The trade was a 11.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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 quarter. Corporate insiders own 21.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RCKT. Opaleye Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 1,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,420,000 after purchasing an additional 45,000 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 524.9% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 181,147 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $620,000 after purchasing an additional 152,161 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP boosted its position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 17.0% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 37,819 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,000 after purchasing an additional 5,501 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $211,000. 98.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.