Granite Investment Partners LLC Buys 48,056 Shares of Vericel Corporation $VCEL

Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) by 66.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 120,236 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 48,056 shares during the quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC owned about 0.24% of Vericel worth $3,868,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VCEL. State Street Corp raised its stake in Vericel by 12.7% in the fourth 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. GW&K Investment Management LLC grew its stake 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. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake 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. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in Vericel in the 3rd quarter valued at about $8,409,000. Finally, Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Vericel by 9.3% in the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,463,312 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $79,245,000 after buying an additional 208,750 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VCEL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Vericel from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $64.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 14th. Four 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Vericel presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.50.

Vericel Price Performance

Vericel stock opened at $48.31 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $38.14 and a 200-day moving average of $36.42. Vericel Corporation has a 1 year low of $28.95 and a 1 year high of $48.33. The company has a market capitalization of $2.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.03 and a beta of 1.07.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last posted 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. Vericel had a net margin of 7.35% and a return on equity of 6.41%. The business had revenue of $68.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $63.68 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Vericel Corporation will post 0.49 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vericel

In related news, insider Jonathan Siegal sold 2,732 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.90, for a total value of $122,666.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 886 shares in the company, valued at $39,781.40. This represents a 75.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Joseph Anthony Mara, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.75, for a total value of $223,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 16,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $716,402.75. The trade was a 23.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 47,732 shares of company stock worth $2,084,167 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

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.