Vericel Corporation $VCEL Shares Purchased by Fisher Asset Management LLC

Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) by 10.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 187,616 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,002 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owned 0.37% of Vericel worth $6,756,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Vericel by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,584,006 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $129,060,000 after purchasing an additional 68,368 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Vericel by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,254,562 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $81,187,000 after purchasing an additional 79,278 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Vericel by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,222,107 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,018,000 after purchasing an additional 11,178 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Vericel by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,946,305 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $61,250,000 after purchasing an additional 161,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Congress Asset Management Co. grew its stake in Vericel by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 1,664,578 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $59,941,000 after purchasing an additional 169,971 shares in the last quarter.

Insider Transactions at Vericel

In related news, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 3,472 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider owned 75,556 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,460. The trade was a 4.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 7.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VCEL. Wall Street Zen lowered Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. 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 note on Wednesday, April 15th. Leerink Partners restated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered Vericel from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Vericel currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.40.

Vericel Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of VCEL opened at $34.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.53 and a beta of 1.15. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $33.90 and a 200-day moving average of $35.95. Vericel Corporation has a 52 week low of $28.95 and a 52 week high of $45.97.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) EPS 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 analyst estimates of $63.68 million. Vericel had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 7.35%.The business’s revenue was up 30.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.23) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Vericel Corporation will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vericel 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.