Invesco Ltd. Cuts Stake in Vericel Corporation $VCEL

Invesco Ltd. lessened its holdings in Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ:VCEL) by 12.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,992,752 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 280,742 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned 3.95% of Vericel worth $84,792,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Vericel during the second quarter valued at about $30,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Vericel by 101.3% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,379 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 694 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in Vericel during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $60,000. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Vericel by 29.9% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,071 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $137,000 after purchasing an additional 706 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC bought a new stake in Vericel in the second quarter valued at approximately $204,000.

Vericel Trading Up 2.9%

Shares of VCEL opened at $38.38 on Wednesday. Vericel Corporation has a 1-year low of $29.24 and a 1-year high of $63.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $36.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 159.92 and a beta of 1.20.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.02) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $67.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $64.57 million. Vericel had a net margin of 5.06% and a return on equity of 4.30%. Vericel’s revenue was up 16.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.02) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Vericel Corporation will post 0.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VCEL. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Vericel in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Vericel from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective (up from $41.00) on shares of Vericel in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research cut Vericel from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. Finally, BTIG Research lowered Vericel from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.75.

About Vericel

Vericel Corporation, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and distribution of cellular therapies for sports medicine and severe burn care markets in North America. The company markets autologous cell therapy products comprising MACI, an autologous cultured chondrocytes on porcine collagen membrane for the repair of symptomatic, and single or multiple full-thickness cartilage defects of the knee; Epicel, a permanent skin replacement humanitarian use device for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns; and NexoBrid, a biological orphan product for eschar removal in adults with deep partial-thickness and/or full-thickness thermal burns.