Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Buys 10,000 Shares of Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSTM)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSTM) by 9.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 113,601 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Verastem were worth $587,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VSTM. FMR LLC bought a new position in Verastem in the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Walleye Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Verastem by 493.7% during the third quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 216,126 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 179,725 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Verastem by 62.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 30,339 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $91,000 after purchasing an additional 11,642 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Verastem by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 424,264 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,269,000 after purchasing an additional 65,265 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in Verastem in the 3rd quarter valued at $112,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Verastem from $7.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Verastem from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Verastem from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. BTIG Research lifted their price target on shares of Verastem from $13.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, B. Riley increased their price target on Verastem from $7.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verastem presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.88.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verastem news, CEO Dan Paterson sold 8,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.24, for a total transaction of $44,896.32. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 347,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,821,324.44. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 9,960 shares of company stock valued at $53,498. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Verastem Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VSTM opened at $6.03 on Tuesday. Verastem, Inc. has a 1 year low of $2.10 and a 1 year high of $13.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $310.47 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.89 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.23 and a quick ratio of 3.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $6.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.81.

Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.76) by ($0.57). As a group, research analysts predict that Verastem, Inc. will post -3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verastem Profile

Verastem, Inc, a development-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing drugs for the treatment of cancer in the United States. Its product candidates are Avutometinib, an orally available small molecule RAF/MEK clamp that inhibits the ras sarcoma RAF/MEK, ERK mitogen activated pathway kinase pathway which is involved in cell proliferation, migration, transformation, and survival of tumor cells; and Defactinib, an oral small molecule inhibitor of FAK and proline-rich tyrosine kinase for various solid tumors.