Wedbush Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT)

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by Wedbush in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

RCKT has been the topic of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a $2.95 price target on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Chardan Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $11.00 price target on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $9.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $8.12.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Trading Up 5.4%

NASDAQ RCKT traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $2.62. The company had a trading volume of 1,098,483 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,516,623. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $3.35 and a 200 day moving average of $3.42. Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $2.42 and a 1-year high of $5.45. The company has a current ratio of 9.24, a quick ratio of 9.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $287.07 million, a P/E ratio of -15.38 and a beta of 0.50.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The biotechnology company reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.22. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.62) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Rocket Pharmaceuticals will post -1.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Christopher Stevens sold 36,658 shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.50, for a total value of $128,303.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 505,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,770,244. The trade was a 6.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, General Counsel Martin Wilson sold 75,364 shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.40, for a total transaction of $256,237.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 598,489 shares in the company, valued at $2,034,862.60. The trade was a 11.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 125,977 shares of company stock worth $432,273 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 21.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Allworth Financial LP purchased a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. HB Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. raised its stake in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 584.1% during the 1st quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 12,484 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 10,659 shares in the last quarter. 98.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc (NASDAQ:RCKT) is a biotechnology company focused on developing gene therapies for rare and devastating diseases. The company uses both ex vivo hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy and in vivo adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy approaches to address conditions with limited or no effective treatment options.

Rocket’s development programs have included marnetegragene autotemcel (RP-L102) for leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, a rare inherited immune disorder; RP-A501 for Danon disease, a genetic heart condition; RP-A601 for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy associated with PKP2 mutations; and RP-L301 for pyruvate kinase deficiency, an inherited blood disorder.