Analysts Set Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRCA) Target Price at $9.60

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:VRCA) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $9.60.

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. HC Wainwright cut shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $2.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Brookline Capital Management reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals from $15.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 21st.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals Stock Down 3.5 %

NASDAQ:VRCA opened at $0.83 on Friday. Verrica Pharmaceuticals has a 1-year low of $0.70 and a 1-year high of $11.41. The company has a 50-day moving average of $1.45 and a 200 day moving average of $4.83. The firm has a market cap of $38.01 million, a PE ratio of -0.46 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.58, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRCA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported ($0.49) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.37) by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of ($1.78) million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.53 million. Verrica Pharmaceuticals had a negative net margin of 625.06% and a negative return on equity of 591.84%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verrica Pharmaceuticals will post -1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verrica Pharmaceuticals

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRCA. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 58,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 4,393 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its stake in Verrica Pharmaceuticals by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 26,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $194,000 after purchasing an additional 4,514 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Verrica Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter worth $50,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 7,609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Key Financial Inc acquired a new position in shares of Verrica Pharmaceuticals during the 2nd quarter valued at about $69,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.45% of the company’s stock.

About Verrica Pharmaceuticals

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.