Short Interest in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) Rises By 19.5%

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,500,000 shares, an increase of 19.5% from the August 31st total of 2,930,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 924,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Evan/ Fa Jones sold 5,173 shares of Veracyte stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total value of $182,244.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 34,343 shares in the company, valued at $1,209,903.89. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Jens Holstein sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total transaction of $145,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,878 shares in the company, valued at $808,462. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Evan/ Fa Jones sold 5,173 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total transaction of $182,244.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 34,343 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,209,903.89. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 45,918 shares of company stock worth $1,399,541 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Veracyte

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VCYT. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Veracyte by 2,331.6% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,386 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,329 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Veracyte by 168.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,516 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 951 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Veracyte in the second quarter worth about $58,000. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Veracyte in the second quarter worth about $83,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Veracyte in the 2nd quarter valued at about $85,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on VCYT shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Veracyte from $21.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on Veracyte from $31.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.25.

Veracyte Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VCYT opened at $33.77 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $29.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.93 and a beta of 1.66. Veracyte has a one year low of $18.61 and a one year high of $35.51.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.10. Veracyte had a positive return on equity of 1.52% and a negative net margin of 13.52%. The business had revenue of $114.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $100.27 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.12) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Veracyte will post 0.16 EPS for the current year.

Veracyte Company Profile

Veracyte, Inc operates as a diagnostics company in the United States and internationally. The company offers Afirma Genomic Sequencing Classifier for cancerous thyroid nodules; Decipher Prostate Biopsy and Radical Prostatectomy for prostate cancer diagnosis; Prosigna Breast Cancer Assay for breast cancer diagnosis; Percepta Nasal Swab Test for lung cancer diagnosis; and Envisia Genomic Classifier for diagnosing interstitial lung disease, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.