Legal & General Group Plc Takes Position in Vericel Corporation $VCEL

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 115,630 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,144,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Vericel during the 1st quarter worth $242,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Vericel by 6.2% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 31,445 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,403,000 after buying an additional 1,847 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Vericel by 13.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 371,486 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $16,576,000 after buying an additional 44,333 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its position in shares of Vericel by 9.0% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 123,028 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,490,000 after acquiring an additional 10,191 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in shares of Vericel by 5.1% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 277,253 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $11,797,000 after acquiring an additional 13,422 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Activity at Vericel

In other Vericel news, insider Sean C. Flynn sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.64, for a total value of $684,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,647 shares in the company, valued at approximately $75,169.08. This trade represents a 90.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jonathan Hopper sold 10,000 shares of Vericel stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total transaction of $450,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 75,753 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,408,885. This trade represents a 11.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 52,232 shares of company stock worth $2,304,217. 7.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Vericel from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Vericel from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Vericel from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 target price (up from $54.00) on shares of Vericel in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group set a $60.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $58.40.

Vericel Price Performance

NASDAQ VCEL opened at $40.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 86.11 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.50. Vericel Corporation has a one year low of $28.95 and a one year high of $49.32.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $77.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $72.70 million. Vericel had a return on equity of 6.91% and a net margin of 7.91%.The company’s revenue was up 22.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.01) earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Vericel Corporation will post 0.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Vericel Company Profile

Vericel Corporation is a biotechnology company specializing in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of cell-based therapies for patients with severe diseases and conditions. The company’s expertise lies in regenerative medicine, where it harnesses the power of autologous cell processing to create products designed to restore function and promote healing in damaged tissues.

Vericel currently markets two FDA-approved therapies. MACI® (autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane) is indicated for the repair of symptomatic cartilage defects of the knee in adult patients.