Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $46.1429.

A number of research firms have recently commented on VCYT. Wall Street Zen upgraded Veracyte from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 27th. Guggenheim raised their price target on Veracyte from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Veracyte from $40.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Veracyte from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Monday, December 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jens Holstein sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.36, for a total value of $423,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 27,199 shares in the company, valued at $1,152,149.64. The trade was a 26.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Karin Eastham sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.45, for a total value of $909,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 13,554 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $616,029.30. This represents a 59.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 134,635 shares of company stock valued at $5,981,961 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Veracyte in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $209,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Veracyte by 146.4% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,454 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 864 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Veracyte by 54.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 518,850 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $17,812,000 after buying an additional 181,872 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in Veracyte in the 3rd quarter valued at $287,000. Finally, Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Veracyte during the 3rd quarter worth $874,000.

Veracyte Trading Down 3.4%

Shares of Veracyte stock opened at $43.56 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.64. The stock has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 114.63 and a beta of 1.88. Veracyte has a 12-month low of $22.61 and a 12-month high of $50.71.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.19. Veracyte had a net margin of 6.12% and a return on equity of 7.23%. The firm had revenue of $131.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $124.62 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Veracyte’s quarterly revenue was up 13.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Veracyte will post 0.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Veracyte

Veracyte, Inc is a genomic diagnostics company focused on improving diagnostic accuracy and patient care through advanced molecular testing. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company develops and commercializes minimally invasive genomic tests that aid in the diagnosis of thyroid, lung and other diseases. Veracyte’s proprietary platform analyzes gene expression patterns in clinical samples to help physicians make more informed treatment decisions, reducing unnecessary surgeries and improving patient outcomes.

The company’s flagship product, the Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier, is designed to assess thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology, helping clinicians distinguish benign from suspicious nodules.