Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seven analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $52.50.

VCEL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Leerink Partners restated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Vericel in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Vericel from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $64.00 price target on shares of Vericel in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday.

Vericel Stock Performance

VCEL opened at $38.46 on Wednesday. Vericel has a one year low of $28.95 and a one year high of $43.57. The company has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 91.57 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.62.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $68.43 million for 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.23) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Vericel will post 0.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vericel news, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 3,472 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $121,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 75,556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,644,460. This trade represents a 4.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vericel

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VCEL. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vericel by 90.3% in the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,210,929 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $69,578,000 after buying an additional 1,048,864 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Vericel by 12.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,163,922 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $113,933,000 after purchasing an additional 356,680 shares in the last quarter. Aberdeen Group plc increased its position in Vericel by 159.5% during the third quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 542,866 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $17,084,000 after buying an additional 333,649 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC increased its position in Vericel by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 1,580,967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $56,931,000 after buying an additional 290,795 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Vericel by 133.6% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 497,167 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $17,903,000 after buying an additional 284,305 shares in the last quarter.

About Vericel

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.