Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $30.60.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VCYT. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Veracyte from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Veracyte news, Director Muna Bhanji sold 5,893 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.44, for a total transaction of $155,810.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 28,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $753,910.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Veracyte news, Director Muna Bhanji sold 5,893 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.44, for a total transaction of $155,810.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 28,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $753,910.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director John L. Bishop sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.50, for a total transaction of $305,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 33,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,010,312.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Veracyte by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 139,438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,309,000 after purchasing an additional 9,946 shares during the period. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veracyte by 3.1% in the first quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 133,582 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,979,000 after purchasing an additional 4,070 shares during the period. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in shares of Veracyte by 24.5% in the first quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 173,717 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,874,000 after purchasing an additional 34,155 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Veracyte by 2.5% in the first quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 177,092 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,949,000 after purchasing an additional 4,373 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Veracyte by 40.7% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,366 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $127,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551 shares during the period.

Veracyte Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ VCYT opened at $25.33 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -63.32 and a beta of 1.32. Veracyte has a 52 week low of $14.92 and a 52 week high of $32.40.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.16) by $0.04. The business had revenue of $90.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $83.05 million. Veracyte had a negative net margin of 8.84% and a negative return on equity of 2.71%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.13) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Veracyte will post -0.51 EPS for the current year.

About Veracyte

Veracyte, Inc operates as a diagnostics company worldwide. The company offers Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier; 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; Envisia Genomic Classifier for diagnosing interstitial lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; and Immunoscore Colon Cancer test for colon cancer diagnosis.