Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) in a research report released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $66.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Guggenheim boosted their target price on Veracyte from $45.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veracyte in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $42.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Veracyte from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.88.

Veracyte Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of VCYT opened at $59.13 on Wednesday. Veracyte has a twelve month low of $22.61 and a twelve month high of $60.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.25 and a beta of 1.93. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.41.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $139.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $130.36 million. Veracyte had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 16.25%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Veracyte will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Veracyte news, insider John Leite sold 13,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.07, for a total value of $699,728.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 132,305 shares in the company, valued at $6,624,511.35. This represents a 9.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, Director Robert S. Epstein sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.01, for a total transaction of $440,100.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 52,446 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,308,148.46. The trade was a 16.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 206,696 shares of company stock worth $10,079,058 in the last ninety days. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its stake in Veracyte by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,360,913 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $183,594,000 after purchasing an additional 161,239 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Veracyte by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,118,166 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $107,042,000 after purchasing an additional 95,664 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Veracyte by 64.9% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,117,046 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $68,190,000 after buying an additional 833,543 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Veracyte by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,900,882 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,039,000 after buying an additional 9,429 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Veracyte by 31.1% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,519,710 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $41,078,000 after buying an additional 360,947 shares in the last quarter.

About Veracyte

Veracyte, Inc is a genomic diagnostics company focused on improving diagnostic accuracy and patient care through advanced molecular testing. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company develops and commercializes minimally invasive genomic tests that aid in the diagnosis of thyroid, lung and other diseases. Veracyte’s proprietary platform analyzes gene expression patterns in clinical samples to help physicians make more informed treatment decisions, reducing unnecessary surgeries and improving patient outcomes.

The company’s flagship product, the Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier, is designed to assess thyroid nodules with indeterminate cytology, helping clinicians distinguish benign from suspicious nodules.