Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) Price Target Lowered to $28.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) had its target price lowered by The Goldman Sachs Group from $32.00 to $28.00 in a research note published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on VCYT. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an underweight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Veracyte from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, William Blair restated an outperform rating on shares of Veracyte in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $29.00.

Veracyte Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of Veracyte stock opened at $19.20 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.64 and a beta of 1.62. Veracyte has a 12-month low of $18.61 and a 12-month high of $30.52. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $22.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.94.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.04) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $98.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $95.49 million. Veracyte had a negative net margin of 20.61% and a negative return on equity of 2.02%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Veracyte will post -0.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Karin Eastham sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.65, for a total value of $216,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 33,125 shares in the company, valued at approximately $717,156.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Veracyte by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 9,325 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $207,000 after buying an additional 778 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in Veracyte by 54.4% during the 1st quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 22,860 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $507,000 after purchasing an additional 8,050 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Veracyte by 117.7% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 20,910 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 11,303 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Veracyte by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,323 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Veracyte by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,118,211 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $195,822,000 after purchasing an additional 52,699 shares during the last quarter.

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.