Vericel (VCEL) Tops on Q4 Earnings & Sales, Stock Up

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Massachusetts based Vericel Corporation VCEL is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company. The company generates revenue from its two marketed products, namely MACI and Epicel. Both the products have been performing well since their launch.

MACI is indicated for the repair of knee cartilage defects in adults using a patient's own cells, while Epicel is a permanent skin replacement used for treating patients with deep-dermal or full-thickness burns.

Vericel’s performance has been pretty impressive so far, having surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four reported quarters while matching the same on one occasion, the average positive surprise being 54.88%. Loss estimates have widened slightly over the past 60 days.

Currently, Vericel has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), but that could definitely change following the company’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings Beat:Vericel surpassed earnings expectations. The company reported EPS of 11 cents while our consensus called for EPS of 5 cents. Earnings rose significantly year over year.

Revenues Beat: Revenues in the reported quarter also came above expectations. Vericel posted revenues of $31.3 million also above our consensus estimate of $29.2 million.

Key Stats:MACI generated revenues of $25.1 million in the reported quarter, while Epicel registered sales $6.2 million.

Sales of both the products have increased year over year and sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2018.

2019 Outlook:Vericel issued a decent revenue guidance for 2019.

The company expects total net product revenues to be in the range of $108 to $112 million in 2019.

Stock Price Impact:Shares were up almost 7.5% in pre-market trading.

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