Quest Partners LLC Has $336,000 Stake in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT)

Quest Partners LLC cut its position in Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCYT) by 52.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,879 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 10,701 shares during the quarter. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Veracyte were worth $336,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Veracyte by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,384,871 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $163,649,000 after buying an additional 266,660 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Veracyte by 67.4% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,241,671 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $26,907,000 after buying an additional 500,020 shares in the last quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp raised its position in shares of Veracyte by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 625,536 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $13,555,000 after buying an additional 7,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Veracyte in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $12,279,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on VCYT. Leerink Partners boosted their target price on shares of Veracyte from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $37.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Veracyte from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of 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. According to MarketBeat.com, Veracyte has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Evan/ Fa Jones sold 5,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.23, for a total value of $182,244.79. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 34,343 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,209,903.89. This represents a 13.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 transaction of $163,164.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 76,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Veracyte Price Performance

VCYT opened at $41.10 on Tuesday. Veracyte, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $18.61 and a fifty-two week high of $41.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -263.93 and a beta of 1.67. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $34.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.36.

Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.16. Veracyte had a negative net margin of 2.18% and a positive return on equity of 3.02%. The firm had revenue of $115.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $109.81 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.03) EPS. The company’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 0.32 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.