Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Price Target Lowered to $27.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) had its target price trimmed by Needham & Company LLC from $33.00 to $27.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on VCYT. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Veracyte from $32.00 to $28.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 15th. William Blair reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Veracyte from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $27.50.

Veracyte Stock Down 4.3 %

Shares of VCYT stock opened at $20.12 on Wednesday. Veracyte has a 12-month low of $18.61 and a 12-month high of $30.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $21.01 and a 200-day moving average of $23.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -19.53 and a beta of 1.65.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $96.84 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.35 million. Veracyte had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 20.61%. The company’s revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.11) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Veracyte will post -0.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Veracyte

In other Veracyte news, Director Karin Eastham sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.65, for a total transaction of $216,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 33,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $717,156.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veracyte

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VCYT. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Veracyte by 96.2% during the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,862 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 913 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veracyte in the 1st quarter valued at about $140,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Veracyte by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,323 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,571 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN bought a new position in Veracyte during the fourth quarter worth about $205,000. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in Veracyte during the fourth quarter worth approximately $220,000.

About Veracyte

Veracyte, Inc operates as a diagnostics company in the United States and internationally. The company offers Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier for cancerous thyroid nodules; 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; and Envisia Genomic Classifier for diagnosing interstitial lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.