Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Director Robert Epstein Sells 10,000 Shares

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) Director Robert Epstein sold 10,000 shares of Veracyte stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.01, for a total value of $440,100.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 52,446 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,308,148.46. The trade was a 16.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Veracyte Stock Performance

NASDAQ VCYT opened at $45.03 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.31 and a beta of 1.89. Veracyte, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.61 and a fifty-two week high of $50.71.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.18. Veracyte had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 16.25%.The business had revenue of $139.07 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $130.36 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.31 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Veracyte, Inc. will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Veracyte

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VCYT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Veracyte by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,504,088 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $291,945,000 after purchasing an additional 403,737 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Veracyte by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,370,467 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $253,028,000 after purchasing an additional 1,048,692 shares in the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Veracyte by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 4,465,775 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $153,310,000 after purchasing an additional 665,686 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Veracyte by 3.8% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Veracyte by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,118,166 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $107,042,000 after purchasing an additional 95,664 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VCYT shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Friday, March 27th. UBS Group raised their target price on Veracyte from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Guggenheim dropped their target price on Veracyte from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Veracyte in a research report on Monday, April 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $45.00 target price on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

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.