Fred Alger Management LLC Makes New $326,000 Investment in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT)

Fred Alger Management LLC bought a new stake in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 9,571 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $326,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Eventide Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Veracyte by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC now owns 677,883 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,075,000 after acquiring an additional 113,883 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Veracyte in the third quarter valued at approximately $723,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Veracyte by 21.8% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 87,555 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,897,000 after purchasing an additional 15,647 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Veracyte by 22.7% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 28,060 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $608,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200 shares during the period. Finally, Granite Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Veracyte by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 934,994 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,261,000 after buying an additional 19,244 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on VCYT. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Veracyte from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Veracyte in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Veracyte from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Leerink Partners increased their target price on Veracyte from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Veracyte from $37.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.25.

Veracyte Price Performance

VCYT opened at $42.95 on Monday. Veracyte, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.61 and a 1-year high of $44.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a P/E ratio of -286.33 and a beta of 1.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $29.07.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.03 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $115.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.81 million. Veracyte had a positive return on equity of 3.02% and a negative net margin of 2.18%. Veracyte’s revenue was up 28.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.03) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Veracyte, Inc. will post 0.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Jonathan Wygant sold 5,032 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.89, for a total value of $215,822.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 42,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,814,804.57. The trade was a 10.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider John Leite sold 5,479 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.78, for a total value of $163,164.62. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 15,684 shares of company stock worth $561,232. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

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.