Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) Stock Gets Price Target Reduction from Leerink Partners

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) had its target price cut by Leerink Partners from $7.00 to $4.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on RCKT. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $7.77.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 2.7%

RCKT stock opened at $2.56 on Wednesday. Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a twelve month low of $2.42 and a twelve month high of $5.45. The company has a quick ratio of 9.24, a current ratio of 9.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market cap of $281.04 million, a PE ratio of -15.06 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50 day moving average of $3.31 and a 200 day moving average of $3.39.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 10th. The biotechnology company reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.22. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.62) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Rocket Pharmaceuticals will post -1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Christopher Stevens sold 36,658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.50, for a total transaction of $128,303.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 505,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,770,244. This represents a 6.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, General Counsel Martin Wilson sold 75,364 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.40, for a total value of $256,237.60. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 598,489 shares in the company, valued at $2,034,862.60. This trade represents a 11.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last three months, insiders sold 125,977 shares of company stock valued at $432,273. Corporate insiders own 21.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth approximately $33,940,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 42.0% during the first quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 3,567,372 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,771,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,262 shares during the last quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM bought a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $8,483,000. Opaleye Management Inc. lifted its position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 4.7% during the second quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 1,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,420,000 after purchasing an additional 45,000 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,512,000. Institutional investors own 98.39% of the company’s stock.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ:RCKT) is a biotechnology company focused on developing gene therapies for rare and devastating diseases. The company uses both ex vivo hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy and in vivo adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy approaches to address conditions with limited or no effective treatment options.

Rocket’s development programs have included marnetegragene autotemcel (RP-L102) for leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, a rare inherited immune disorder; RP-A501 for Danon disease, a genetic heart condition; RP-A601 for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy associated with PKP2 mutations; and RP-L301 for pyruvate kinase deficiency, an inherited blood disorder.