Nuveen LLC Purchases New Position in Vericel Corporation $VCEL

Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 128,899 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,751,000. Nuveen LLC owned about 0.26% of Vericel at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VCEL. Mariner LLC increased its stake in Vericel by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 9,209 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $506,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Vericel by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 750,492 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $41,211,000 after purchasing an additional 56,499 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Vericel by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 29,609 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in Vericel by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 34,705 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,906,000 after purchasing an additional 6,632 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in Vericel in the fourth quarter valued at $405,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VCEL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vericel from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $67.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of Vericel from $61.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $60.33.

Vericel Stock Down 3.3%

Shares of Vericel stock opened at $35.79 on Tuesday. Vericel Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.09 and a 52-week high of $63.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.85. The firm has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 298.27 and a beta of 1.27.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The biotechnology company reported ($0.01) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $63.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $64.61 million. Vericel had a net margin of 2.85% and a return on equity of 2.47%. The business’s revenue was up 20.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.10) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Vericel Corporation will post 0.14 EPS for the current year.

About Vericel

Vericel Corporation, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of cellular therapies for sports medicine and severe burn care markets in North America. The company markets autologous cell therapy products comprising MACI, an autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane for the repair of symptomatic, and single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee; Epicel, a permanent skin replacement humanitarian use device for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns; and NexoBrid, a biological orphan product for eschar removal in adults with deep partial-thickness and/or full-thickness thermal burns.