Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $47.06 and last traded at $46.98, with a volume of 640664 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $45.15.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VCEL. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a report on Friday, May 8th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Vericel from $48.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Leerink Partners reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Vericel from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.50.

Vericel Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $2.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 111.86 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.10.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by $0.03. Vericel had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 7.35%.The business had revenue of $68.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $63.68 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.23) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vericel Corporation will post 0.49 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vericel news, insider Sean C. Flynn sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.64, for a total value of $684,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,169.08. This trade represents a 90.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $450,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 75,753 shares in the company, valued at $3,408,885. The trade was a 11.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 47,732 shares of company stock worth $2,084,167 in the last ninety days. 7.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vericel

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Vericel by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,584,006 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,060,000 after buying an additional 68,368 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Vericel by 12.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,163,922 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $113,933,000 after acquiring an additional 356,680 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vericel by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,463,312 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $79,245,000 after acquiring an additional 208,750 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $80,018,000 after acquiring an additional 11,178 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vericel by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,946,305 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $61,250,000 after acquiring an additional 161,378 shares during the period.

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.