Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) in a research note released on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $15.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on VSTM. B. Riley upped their price objective on shares of Verastem from $7.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. HC Wainwright upped their price target on shares of Verastem from $7.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Verastem from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Verastem from $13.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Guggenheim increased their target price on Verastem from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verastem has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.89.

Verastem Stock Performance

Shares of VSTM opened at $4.64 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $6.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $4.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 3.23. The company has a market capitalization of $238.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.45 and a beta of 0.57. Verastem has a 1 year low of $2.10 and a 1 year high of $13.52.

Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verastem will post -3.02 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Dan Paterson sold 8,568 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.24, for a total value of $44,896.32. Following the completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 9,954 shares of company stock worth $53,457 in the last quarter. 2.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verastem

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verastem by 67.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 890,599 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,663,000 after purchasing an additional 359,060 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers increased its position in Verastem by 38.0% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 37,629 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $195,000 after buying an additional 10,352 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Verastem by 546.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 55,708 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 47,094 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Verastem during the third quarter valued at $112,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Verastem by 55.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 16,878 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 6,016 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.37% of the company’s stock.

About Verastem

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.