Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) in a report published on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $52.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock.

RCKT has been the topic of several other research reports. Chardan Capital reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $62.00 target price on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Rocket Pharmaceuticals from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an overweight rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. William Blair restated an outperform rating on shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price target on Rocket Pharmaceuticals from $49.00 to $40.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $52.29.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

Rocket Pharmaceuticals stock opened at $21.36 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $20.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.60. The firm has a market cap of $1.94 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.44 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 7.79 and a current ratio of 7.79. Rocket Pharmaceuticals has a 52 week low of $16.55 and a 52 week high of $32.53.

Rocket Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:RCKT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.74) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.72) by ($0.02). During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.82) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Rocket Pharmaceuticals will post -2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Mark Andrew White sold 3,026 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.39, for a total transaction of $61,700.14. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 72,220 shares in the company, valued at $1,472,565.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 31.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Rocket Pharmaceuticals

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in RCKT. Amalgamated Bank increased its stake in Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 8,653 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $259,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 525,452 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $15,748,000 after acquiring an additional 57,246 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 40.8% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 86,587 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,595,000 after acquiring an additional 25,081 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,963 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $538,000 after purchasing an additional 661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Rocket Pharmaceuticals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,293,000. 98.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Rocket Pharmaceuticals

Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a late-stage biotechnology company that focuses on developing gene therapies for rare and devastating diseases. It has three clinical-stage ex vivo lentiviral vector programs for fanconi anemia, a genetic defect in the bone marrow that reduces production of blood cells or promotes the production of faulty blood cells; leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I, a genetic disorder that causes the immune system to malfunction; and pyruvate kinase deficiency, a rare red blood cell autosomal recessive disorder that results in chronic non-spherocytic hemolytic anemia.