Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Director Sells $204,750.00 in Stock

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) Director Jens Holstein sold 5,000 shares of Veracyte stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.95, for a total value of $204,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 27,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,124,937.45. This trade represents a 15.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Veracyte Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of Veracyte stock opened at $39.79 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $47.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.47. Veracyte, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $29.45 and a fifty-two week high of $60.91. The firm has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.22 and a beta of 1.93.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.13. Veracyte had a return on equity of 9.26% and a net margin of 20.37%.The company had revenue of $150.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $144.59 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.44 EPS. Veracyte’s quarterly revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Veracyte, Inc. will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Veracyte during the second quarter valued at about $792,058,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Veracyte in the 2nd quarter valued at about $84,078,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Veracyte in the 2nd quarter valued at about $64,737,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Veracyte during the 2nd quarter valued at about $50,398,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Veracyte by 64.9% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,117,046 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $68,190,000 after buying an additional 833,543 shares during the period.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their target price on shares of Veracyte from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Veracyte from $52.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Veracyte in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $47.00 to $44.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Veracyte from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Veracyte currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.78.

Veracyte Company Profile

Veracyte, Inc is a diagnostics company that develops and commercializes genomic tests designed to help physicians diagnose cancer, assess disease risk and guide treatment decisions. The company combines genomic data with bioinformatics and machine-learning technologies to provide clinically actionable information from patient tissue samples.

Veracyte’s portfolio includes Afirma tests for evaluating thyroid nodules, Decipher tests for assessing the risk and biological characteristics of prostate cancer, and Prosigna for classifying and evaluating recurrence risk in certain breast cancers.