Ocular Therapeutix’s (OCUL) “Buy” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ:OCUL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by Needham & Company LLC in a report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $18.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 126.73% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ocular Therapeutix from $24.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ocular Therapeutix in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Chardan Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $23.00 target price on shares of Ocular Therapeutix in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of Ocular Therapeutix in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Ocular Therapeutix from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.75.

Ocular Therapeutix Price Performance

OCUL stock traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $7.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,982,979 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,973,828. Ocular Therapeutix has a 12 month low of $6.23 and a 12 month high of $16.44. The company has a quick ratio of 13.03, a current ratio of 13.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.59 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $9.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.33.

Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ:OCUL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.35) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.40) by $0.05. The business had revenue of $13.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.20 million. Ocular Therapeutix had a negative return on equity of 59.89% and a negative net margin of 579.10%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.39) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Ocular Therapeutix will post -1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Ocular Therapeutix

In related news, insider Peter Kaiser sold 3,035 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.77, for a total transaction of $32,686.95. Following the sale, the insider owned 264,378 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,847,351.06. This represents a 1.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Pravin Dugel sold 21,649 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.77, for a total value of $233,159.73. Following the sale, the insider owned 2,525,429 shares in the company, valued at $27,198,870.33. The trade was a 0.85% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,877 shares of company stock worth $321,827. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ocular Therapeutix

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of OCUL. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Ocular Therapeutix in the second quarter worth $190,278,000. Commodore Capital LP purchased a new stake in Ocular Therapeutix in the first quarter worth $21,810,000. Readystate Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Ocular Therapeutix in the first quarter worth $7,484,000. Defilade Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in Ocular Therapeutix by 118.2% in the first quarter. Defilade Capital Management L.P. now owns 1,487,645 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $12,600,000 after purchasing an additional 805,982 shares during the period. Finally, Spruce Street Capital LP purchased a new stake in Ocular Therapeutix in the fourth quarter worth $9,518,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.21% of the company’s stock.

Ocular Therapeutix Company Profile

Ocular Therapeutix, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for diseases and conditions affecting the eye. The company uses its proprietary hydrogel-based technology to design sustained-release treatments intended to deliver medication to ocular tissues over extended periods and potentially reduce the need for frequent eye drops or injections.

Its commercial product, Dextenza, is a resorbable intracanalicular insert that delivers dexamethasone to the ocular surface for the treatment of inflammation and pain following ophthalmic surgery.