Vericel Co. (NASDAQ:VCEL) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its holdings in Vericel Co. (NASDAQ:VCEL) by 26.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 251,858 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 91,834 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.51% of Vericel worth $10,641,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VCEL. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Vericel by 4,126.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 634 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Vericel by 48.1% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,247 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Vericel by 22.2% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,773 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Vericel in the third quarter valued at $92,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Vericel during the third quarter worth about $146,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on VCEL shares. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Vericel in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Vericel in a report on Friday, November 8th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Vericel from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Vericel from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 24th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of Vericel to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Vericel presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.14.

Vericel Stock Down 3.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VCEL opened at $55.30 on Tuesday. Vericel Co. has a fifty-two week low of $32.31 and a fifty-two week high of $61.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.82. The company has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 921.82 and a beta of 1.71.

Vericel (NASDAQ:VCEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.02) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.03. Vericel had a net margin of 1.56% and a return on equity of 1.48%. The firm had revenue of $57.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.32 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Vericel Co. will post 0.13 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vericel news, CEO Dominick Colangelo sold 17,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.38, for a total transaction of $724,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 220,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,142,373.06. The trade was a 7.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Jonathan Mark Hopper sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.72, for a total transaction of $587,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 58,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,427,545.12. This represents a 14.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 44,266 shares of company stock valued at $2,090,636 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 5.20% of the company’s stock.

Vericel Profile

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.