Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSTM) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSTM) have received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $28.79.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VSTM. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $17.50 price objective on shares of Verastem in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $32.00 price target on shares of Verastem in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Verastem from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verastem

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Verastem by 114,375.0% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,158 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 9,150 shares in the last quarter. Cannon Global Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Verastem during the 1st quarter worth $131,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Verastem by 27.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 22,758 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $185,000 after buying an additional 4,939 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verastem in the 3rd quarter valued at $245,000. Finally, Sectoral Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verastem during the third quarter worth $1,653,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.37% of the company’s stock.

Verastem Price Performance

NASDAQ VSTM opened at $10.90 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 5.45 and a quick ratio of 5.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $275.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.53 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.67. Verastem has a 52-week low of $4.68 and a 52-week high of $15.18.

Verastem (NASDAQ:VSTM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.82) by ($0.20). Equities research analysts predict that Verastem will post -4.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Verastem

Verastem, Inc, a development-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing drugs for the treatment of cancer in the United States. Its product candidates are Avutometinib, an orally available small molecule RAF/MEK clamp that inhibits the ras sarcoma RAF/MEK, ERK mitogen activated pathway kinase pathway which is involved in cell proliferation, migration, transformation, and survival of tumor cells; and Defactinib, an oral small molecule inhibitor of FAK and proline-rich tyrosine kinase for various solid tumors.