Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) Stock Crosses Below Fifty Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RCKT)’s share price passed below its fifty day moving average during trading on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $3.16 and traded as low as $2.17. Rocket Pharmaceuticals shares last traded at $2.24, with a volume of 1,850,337 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on RCKT shares. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $2.95 price target on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Leerink Partners dropped their target price on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from $7.00 to $4.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $3.00 to $4.00 in a report on Thursday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Rocket Pharmaceuticals has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.77.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.30. 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 cap of $241.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.94 and a beta of 0.50.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 10th. The biotechnology company reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.22. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.62) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will post -1.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Trading of Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,940,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 42.0% in the 1st quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 3,567,372 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,771,000 after buying an additional 1,054,262 shares in the last quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM acquired a new stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,483,000. Opaleye Management Inc. boosted its stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 1,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,420,000 after buying an additional 45,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter valued at $2,512,000. 98.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.