Fifth Third Bancorp Purchases 52,043 Shares of Veracyte, Inc. $VCYT

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in shares of Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) by 10,285.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,549 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 52,043 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp owned about 0.07% of Veracyte worth $1,693,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Veracyte by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,360,913 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $183,594,000 after purchasing an additional 161,239 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Veracyte by 3.2% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,118,166 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $107,042,000 after buying an additional 95,664 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $80,039,000 after buying an additional 9,429 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Veracyte by 31.1% in 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 during the period. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Veracyte in the fourth quarter worth approximately $58,158,000.

Insider Buying and Selling at Veracyte

In other news, insider John Leite sold 13,975 shares of Veracyte stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 132,305 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,624,511.35. This trade represents a 9.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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, CEO Marc Stapley sold 138,051 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.12, for a total value of $6,919,116.12. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 440,494 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,077,559.28. The trade was a 23.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. In the last three months, insiders have sold 206,696 shares of company stock worth $10,079,058. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VCYT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veracyte in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on Veracyte from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Veracyte in a research report on Monday, April 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Zacks Research lowered shares of Veracyte from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Veracyte from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Veracyte presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.88.

Veracyte Trading Down 2.6%

VCYT opened at $58.01 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.74. The company has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.22 and a beta of 1.93. Veracyte, Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.92 and a 12-month high of $60.91.

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

Veracyte Company Profile

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.