Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $52.50.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VCEL shares. Leerink Partners reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Vericel from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday.

Insider Activity at Vericel

In other news, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 3,472 shares of Vericel stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total value of $121,520.00. Following the completion of 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VCEL. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Vericel in the first quarter valued at $242,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in Vericel by 6.2% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 31,445 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,403,000 after acquiring an additional 1,847 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Vericel by 13.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 371,486 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $16,576,000 after acquiring an additional 44,333 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in Vericel by 9.0% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 123,028 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,490,000 after acquiring an additional 10,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its holdings in Vericel by 5.1% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 277,253 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $11,797,000 after acquiring an additional 13,422 shares during the last quarter.

Vericel Stock Performance

Vericel stock opened at $38.46 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $34.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.62. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 91.57 and a beta of 1.12. Vericel has a fifty-two week low of $28.95 and a fifty-two week high of $43.57.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $68.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $63.68 million. Vericel had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 7.35%.Vericel’s revenue was up 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.23) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Vericel will post 0.49 EPS 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.