Brokerages Set Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSTM) Price Target at $28.79

Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSTM) has earned an average rating of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $28.79.

VSTM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $32.00 price target on shares of Verastem in a research note on Friday, March 15th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $17.50 price objective on shares of Verastem in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Verastem from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th.

Insider Transactions at Verastem

In other news, Director Robert E. Gagnon sold 9,204 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.95, for a total transaction of $100,783.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 37,008 shares in the company, valued at $405,237.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 9,811 shares of company stock worth $107,337 over the last 90 days. 2.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verastem

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Verastem by 6.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,511,513 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $7,235,000 after acquiring an additional 528,022 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verastem by 417.3% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 5,154,530 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $5,979,000 after purchasing an additional 4,158,108 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verastem by 3.5% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,896,552 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $787,000 after purchasing an additional 64,245 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Verastem by 190.2% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,684,106 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,375,000 after purchasing an additional 1,103,806 shares during the period. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verastem during the fourth quarter worth $662,000. Institutional investors own 88.37% of the company’s stock.

Verastem Price Performance

Shares of VSTM stock opened at $11.44 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 5.45 and a quick ratio of 5.45. The firm has a market cap of $289.43 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.79 and a beta of 0.48. Verastem has a one year low of $4.26 and a one year high of $15.18.

Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.02) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.82) by ($0.20). On average, analysts expect that Verastem will post -4.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verastem Company Profile

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.