Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA) Shares Up 0.9%

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRCA) shares shot up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $7.96 and last traded at $7.70. 97,191 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 48% from the average session volume of 188,376 shares. The stock had previously closed at $7.63.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VRCA. HC Wainwright upped their target price on Verrica Pharmaceuticals from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Verrica Pharmaceuticals from $8.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Price Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $8.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.70. The stock has a market cap of $325.36 million, a P/E ratio of -4.38 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a current ratio of 3.17, a quick ratio of 3.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.58.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 13th. The company reported ($0.44) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.54) by $0.10. Verrica Pharmaceuticals had a negative return on equity of 229.26% and a negative net margin of 905.83%. The firm had revenue of $3.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 million. On average, analysts forecast that Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. will post -1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verrica Pharmaceuticals

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BML Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. BML Capital Management LLC now owns 180,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,318,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,268,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,511,000 after buying an additional 7,609 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,999,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,280,000 after buying an additional 1,045,935 shares during the period. Finally, Perceptive Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. Perceptive Advisors LLC now owns 7,099,182 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,966,000 after buying an additional 2,060,199 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.45% of the company’s stock.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Company Profile

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc, a clinical-stage dermatology therapeutics company, develops medications for the treatment of skin diseases in the United States. Its product pipeline comprises YCANTH (VP-102), which is in phase III clinical trial for the treatment of common warts; and has completed phase II clinical trial for the treatment of external genital warts.