Celcuity’s (CELC) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Celcuity (NASDAQ:CELC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $23.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 40.85% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CELC. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $27.00 price objective on shares of Celcuity in a research note on Thursday. Leerink Partnrs upgraded Celcuity to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Craig Hallum restated a “buy” rating and issued a $27.00 price target (up previously from $25.00) on shares of Celcuity in a report on Thursday, May 16th. SVB Leerink started coverage on shares of Celcuity in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $29.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Celcuity from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Celcuity presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $29.00.

Celcuity Price Performance

CELC opened at $16.33 on Thursday. Celcuity has a 52-week low of $8.39 and a 52-week high of $22.19. The company has a 50 day moving average of $16.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $16.82. The company has a market cap of $573.20 million, a P/E ratio of -5.87 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 11.23, a current ratio of 11.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Celcuity (NASDAQ:CELC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 15th. The company reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.71) by $0.07. On average, analysts expect that Celcuity will post -2.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celcuity

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Commodore Capital LP raised its position in shares of Celcuity by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Commodore Capital LP now owns 1,754,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,566,000 after acquiring an additional 60,563 shares in the last quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Celcuity by 189.9% during the 1st quarter. Baker BROS. Advisors LP now owns 1,552,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,534,000 after buying an additional 1,017,000 shares during the last quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celcuity during the 4th quarter valued at about $21,583,000. Samlyn Capital LLC raised its stake in Celcuity by 92.4% during the second quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC now owns 1,326,953 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,735,000 after acquiring an additional 637,190 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Celcuity by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 828,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,898,000 after acquiring an additional 7,821 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.33% of the company’s stock.

About Celcuity

Celcuity Inc, a clinical stage biotechnology company, focuses on the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of various solid tumors in the United States. The company's CELsignia diagnostic platform uses a patient's living tumor cells to identify the specific abnormal cellular process driving a patient's cancer and the related targeted therapy for the treatment.