Ocular Therapeutix’s (OCUL) Buy Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ:OCUL)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 134.99% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on OCUL. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Ocular Therapeutix in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Chardan Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $23.00 target price on shares of Ocular Therapeutix in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Ocular Therapeutix from $24.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ocular Therapeutix from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Ocular Therapeutix from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.75.

Ocular Therapeutix Stock Down 20.6%

Shares of OCUL opened at $7.66 on Tuesday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $9.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.33. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.39 and a beta of 0.97. Ocular Therapeutix has a 12 month low of $6.23 and a 12 month high of $16.44.

Ocular Therapeutix (NASDAQ:OCUL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.35) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.40) by $0.05. The company had revenue of $13.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.20 million. Ocular Therapeutix had a negative return on equity of 59.89% and a negative net margin of 579.10%.The company’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.39) EPS. Equities analysts predict that Ocular Therapeutix will post -1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ocular Therapeutix

In other news, insider Pravin Dugel sold 21,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.77, for a total transaction of $233,159.73. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 Jeffrey Heier sold 3,296 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $10.78, for a total value of $35,530.88. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 318,326 shares in the company, valued at $3,431,554.28. This trade represents a 1.02% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Insiders sold a total of 29,877 shares of company stock worth $321,827 over the last 90 days. 3.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ocular Therapeutix during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $190,278,000. Summer Road LLC lifted its holdings in Ocular Therapeutix by 6.9% in the first quarter. Summer Road LLC now owns 11,879,825 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $100,622,000 after buying an additional 771,270 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ocular Therapeutix by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,777,777 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $130,842,000 after acquiring an additional 527,777 shares during the last quarter. Octagon Capital Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ocular Therapeutix by 20.7% in the first quarter. Octagon Capital Advisors LP now owns 3,166,600 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $26,821,000 after acquiring an additional 543,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commodore Capital LP acquired a new stake in Ocular Therapeutix during the 1st quarter worth $21,810,000. Institutional investors own 59.21% of the company’s stock.

About Ocular Therapeutix

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.