Verrica Pharmaceuticals’ (VRCA) “Hold” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $2.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Brookline Capital Management reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on Verrica Pharmaceuticals from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $9.60.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Stock Performance

Shares of VRCA traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $0.84. The stock had a trading volume of 2,759,098 shares, compared to its average volume of 443,345. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.80 million, a PE ratio of -0.45 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.58, a current ratio of 2.36 and a quick ratio of 2.23. Verrica Pharmaceuticals has a 12 month low of $0.75 and a 12 month high of $11.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $5.21.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.49) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.37) by ($0.12). Verrica Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 625.06% and a negative return on equity of 591.84%. The firm had revenue of ($1.78) million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.53 million. Analysts anticipate that Verrica Pharmaceuticals will post -1.5 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Simplify Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Verrica Pharmaceuticals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,041,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at approximately $332,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals in the second quarter worth $50,000. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its position in shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 20.4% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 26,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $194,000 after acquiring an additional 4,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Key Financial Inc purchased a new position in Verrica Pharmaceuticals during the second quarter valued at $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.45% of the company’s stock.

About Verrica Pharmaceuticals

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc, a clinical-stage dermatology therapeutics company, develops medications for the treatment of skin diseases in the United States. Its product pipeline comprises YCANTH (VP-102), which is in phase III clinical trial for the treatment of common warts; and has completed phase II clinical trial for the treatment of external genital warts.