Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Price Target Lowered to $27.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) had its price objective cut by Needham & Company LLC from $33.00 to $27.00 in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on VCYT. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of Veracyte in a report on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Veracyte from $32.00 to $28.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Veracyte from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Veracyte currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $27.50.

Veracyte Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VCYT opened at $20.12 on Wednesday. Veracyte has a 52 week low of $18.61 and a 52 week high of $30.52. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $21.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.82. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.53 and a beta of 1.65.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.17. Veracyte had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 20.61%. The company had revenue of $96.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.35 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.11) earnings per share. Veracyte’s revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Veracyte will post -0.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Karin Eastham sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.65, for a total value of $216,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 33,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $717,156.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Veracyte by 96.2% during the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,862 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 913 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Veracyte during the 1st quarter worth about $140,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in Veracyte by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 8,573 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $191,000 after purchasing an additional 1,239 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Veracyte by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,323 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,571 shares during the period. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN purchased a new position in Veracyte during the 4th quarter valued at about $205,000.

About Veracyte

Veracyte, Inc operates as a diagnostics company in the United States and internationally. The company offers Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier for cancerous thyroid nodules; Decipher Prostate Biopsy and Radical Prostatectomy for prostate cancer diagnosis; Prosigna Breast Cancer Assay for breast cancer diagnosis; Percepta Nasal Swab Test for lung cancer diagnosis; and Envisia Genomic Classifier for diagnosing interstitial lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.