Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC Sells 577 Shares of Vericel Corporation $VCEL

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) by 1.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,691 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 577 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC owned about 0.07% of Vericel worth $1,476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 2.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 270,154 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,054,000 after purchasing an additional 7,222 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 15.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 204,510 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $9,125,000 after purchasing an additional 27,526 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 34.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,895 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $129,000 after purchasing an additional 748 shares during the period. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Vericel during the first quarter valued at approximately $812,000. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 6.2% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 950,486 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $42,410,000 after purchasing an additional 55,436 shares during the period.

Vericel Stock Up 4.0%

Shares of VCEL stock opened at $33.74 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $34.30 and a 200 day moving average of $38.94. Vericel Corporation has a 52 week low of $29.24 and a 52 week high of $63.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 281.19 and a beta of 1.39.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $63.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.61 million. Vericel had a return on equity of 2.47% and a net margin of 2.85%.The firm’s revenue was up 20.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.10) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Vericel Corporation will post 0.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Vericel in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on Vericel from $61.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Finally, BTIG Research lowered Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Vericel has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.40.

Vericel Company Profile

Vericel Corporation, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of cellular therapies for sports medicine and severe burn care markets in North America. The company markets autologous cell therapy products comprising MACI, an autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane for the repair of symptomatic, and single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee; Epicel, a permanent skin replacement humanitarian use device for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns; and NexoBrid, a biological orphan product for eschar removal in adults with deep partial-thickness and/or full-thickness thermal burns.