Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases New Stake in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 8,516 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $290,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VCYT. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Veracyte in the second quarter valued at about $12,279,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Veracyte by 67.4% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,241,671 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $26,907,000 after buying an additional 500,020 shares during the last quarter. Bamco Inc. NY boosted its holdings in Veracyte by 46.3% during the first quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 1,115,806 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,726,000 after buying an additional 353,000 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Veracyte by 3.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,384,871 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $163,649,000 after buying an additional 266,660 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peregrine Asset Advisers Inc. bought a new position in Veracyte during the third quarter worth about $4,681,000.

Insider Activity at Veracyte

In other news, insider John Leite sold 5,479 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.78, for a total transaction of $163,164.62. Following the sale, the insider now owns 76,174 shares in the company, valued at $2,268,461.72. This represents a 6.71 % decrease in their position. 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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 34,343 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,209,903.89. This represents a 13.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VCYT. Leerink Partners raised their target price on Veracyte from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Veracyte from $21.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Veracyte from $37.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Veracyte in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Veracyte from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.00.

Veracyte Stock Performance

Shares of Veracyte stock opened at $35.94 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.66. Veracyte, Inc. has a 52-week low of $18.61 and a 52-week high of $41.43. The firm has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of -239.60 and a beta of 1.67.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.16. Veracyte had a positive return on equity of 3.02% and a negative net margin of 2.18%. The business had revenue of $115.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.81 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.03) EPS. Veracyte’s revenue for the quarter was up 28.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Veracyte, Inc. will post 0.16 EPS for the current year.

About Veracyte

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.