# Vericel Corp Ord (VCEL.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/VCEL

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:32:50.042Z. Financial observations: FY1996–FY2025.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $41.02 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 0 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 7

- Operating margin variation: 1.41×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -0.35×

- FY2017: -0.23×

- FY2018: -0.04×

- FY2019: -0.10×

- FY2020: 0.02×

- FY2021: -0.05×

- FY2022: -0.10×

- FY2023: -0.03×

- FY2024: 0.02×

- FY2025: 0.04×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -8.2%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -91.6%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -4.7 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 67.9%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 72.6%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 3.8%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -11.8%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -128.2%

- FY2017: -91.6%

- FY2018: -16.0%

- FY2019: -12.8%

- FY2020: 2.0%

- FY2021: -5.3%

- FY2022: -11.2%

- FY2023: -2.5%

- FY2024: 1.6%

- FY2025: 3.3%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$49M

- Net income, five-year total: -$482K

- Return on incremental invested capital: 12.5%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 0.3 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 1.9 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 26.4%

Chart: Owner earnings · five years; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: -$7.5M

- FY2022: -$18M

- FY2023: -$12M

- FY2024: -$28M

- FY2025: $17M

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -91.6% vs 1.6%

- Per-share earnings: -0.69 to 0.20 (three-year endpoint medians)

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 8.2%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 2.0%

- Market cap gain: $1.7B

- Cumulative retained earnings: -$33M

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 8.2%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 2.0%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $0.89

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.69

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $0.20

- Buyback history: 0 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: $7.5M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: -$52M

- ROIC, first three-year median: -91.6%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 1.6%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -$0.85

- FY2017: -$0.52

- FY2018: -$0.20

- FY2019: -$0.22

- FY2020: $0.06

- FY2021: -$0.16

- FY2022: -$0.35

- FY2023: -$0.07

- FY2024: $0.20

- FY2025: $0.32

### accounting: pass

- stock compensation exceeds 15% of operating cash flow

- Sloan accruals: -7.3%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.18×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 74.7%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 3.14×

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.02×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 0.7%

- FY2017: -7.5%

- FY2018: -6.5%

- FY2019: -1.6%

- FY2020: -7.2%

- FY2021: -15.0%

- FY2022: -12.6%

- FY2023: -10.9%

- FY2024: -11.0%

- FY2025: -7.3%

## Holders

- [Andrew Adams](https://gigainvestors.com/MPF): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 30% since Jan 2025 · sales +16.5%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:47.465Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-05-08: Vericel Reports First Quarter 2025 Financial Results and Raises Full-Year Profitability Guidance ([globenewswire.com](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/05/08/3077156/34447/en/Vericel-Reports-First-Quarter-2025-Financial-Results-and-Raises-Full-Year-Profitability-Guidance.html))

- 2025-11-06: Vericel beats top-line and bottom-line estimates; reaffirms FY25 outlook ([seekingalpha.com](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4517258-vericel-beats-top-line-and-bottom-line-estimates-reaffirms-fy25-outlook?utm_source=feed_news_all&utm_medium=referral&feed_item_type=news))

- 2026-04-02: Vericel secures $197M BARDA deal, boosting NexoBrid supply plans ([seekingalpha.com](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4572358-vericel-secures-197m-barda-deal-boosting-nexobrid-supply-plans?utm_source=feed_news_all&utm_medium=referral&feed_item_type=news))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +16.5%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2016: $54M 

- FY2017: $64M 

- FY2018: $91M 

- FY2019: $118M 

- FY2020: $124M 

- FY2021: $156M 

- FY2022: $164M 

- FY2023: $198M 

- FY2024: $237M 

- FY2025: $276M 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 74.4%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-26.

- FY2016: 47.9% 

- FY2017: 52.5% 

- FY2018: 64.6% 

- FY2019: 68.1% 

- FY2020: 67.8% 

- FY2021: 67.9% 

- FY2022: 66.8% 

- FY2023: 68.6% 

- FY2024: 72.6% 

- FY2025: 74.4% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in biotechnology; annual sales are USD 276.3 million.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: revenue 276259000; grossProfit 205599000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 68.6% to 74.4% during 2023–25; it lost 8.2% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 68.6%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 72.6%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 74.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,-1.2820263091323045],[2017,-0.916488076803964],[2018,-0.15994768736727613],[2019,-0.12839340141852168],[2020,0.01997026646184571],[2021,-0.05292001432884704],[2022,-0.11201472935230748],[2023,-0.024978526497030886],[2024,0.01622468800362722],[2025,0.03328427548781566]]; median -0.08246737184057726. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Can it raise prices

Kept about a 67% gross margin through 2022 cost inflation.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); Gross margin observations: [[2021,0.6788467448650309],[2022,0.6679524229610927],[2023,0.686405151987687]]; range within 2 percentage points.

### Where the cash goes

Spends 95.7% of cash earnings on expansion; earns 12.5% on new investment.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); FY2020: growth capex 243000; upkeep 2383000; owner earnings 2864000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.0848463687150838.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-26); FY2025: growth capex 15801000; upkeep 11361000; owner earnings 16518000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.9565928078459862.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Incremental return on capital 0.1251177541247151, from the economics test's unchanged annual inputs.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Dividend observations: [[2016,0],[2017,0],[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 1.2% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-15); VCEL.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 1.1900000000000002 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-15.

### What the price says

The price is 7.7 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-26); Closing price 41.02 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 5.2972905601043125; price multiple 7.743581276990072. FY2025 cash earnings/share 0.3167340990585032. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $2.20 per share

- 2016-11: $2.40 per share

- 2016-12: $3.00 per share

- 2017-01: $2.60 per share

- 2017-02: $3.00 per share

- 2017-03: $2.80 per share

- 2017-04: $2.60 per share

- 2017-05: $2.95 per share

- 2017-06: $3.30 per share

- 2017-07: $3.25 per share

- 2017-08: $4.30 per share

- 2017-09: $6.00 per share

- 2017-10: $4.55 per share

- 2017-11: $4.45 per share

- 2017-12: $5.45 per share

- 2018-01: $7.70 per share

- 2018-02: $8.00 per share

- 2018-03: $9.95 per share

- 2018-04: $13.35 per share

- 2018-05: $13.45 per share

- 2018-06: $9.70 per share

- 2018-07: $10.45 per share

- 2018-08: $12.20 per share

- 2018-09: $14.15 per share

- 2018-10: $11.15 per share

- 2018-11: $17.58 per share

- 2018-12: $17.40 per share

- 2019-01: $17.20 per share

- 2019-02: $18.71 per share

- 2019-03: $17.51 per share

- 2019-04: $16.99 per share

- 2019-05: $15.65 per share

- 2019-06: $18.89 per share

- 2019-07: $19.12 per share

- 2019-08: $16.54 per share

- 2019-09: $15.14 per share

- 2019-10: $15.87 per share

- 2019-11: $18.66 per share

- 2019-12: $17.40 per share

- 2020-01: $16.40 per share

- 2020-02: $15.44 per share

- 2020-03: $9.17 per share

- 2020-04: $14.50 per share

- 2020-05: $14.38 per share

- 2020-06: $13.82 per share

- 2020-07: $16.49 per share

- 2020-08: $15.85 per share

- 2020-09: $18.53 per share

- 2020-10: $18.53 per share

- 2020-11: $25.54 per share

- 2020-12: $30.88 per share

- 2021-01: $41.27 per share

- 2021-02: $48.28 per share

- 2021-03: $55.55 per share

- 2021-04: $62.42 per share

- 2021-05: $56.50 per share

- 2021-06: $52.50 per share

- 2021-07: $52.94 per share

- 2021-08: $54.17 per share

- 2021-09: $48.80 per share

- 2021-10: $46.02 per share

- 2021-11: $37.21 per share

- 2021-12: $39.30 per share

- 2022-01: $35.58 per share

- 2022-02: $41.21 per share

- 2022-03: $38.22 per share

- 2022-04: $28.50 per share

- 2022-05: $27.15 per share

- 2022-06: $25.18 per share

- 2022-07: $32.54 per share

- 2022-08: $24.95 per share

- 2022-09: $23.20 per share

- 2022-10: $26.88 per share

- 2022-11: $22.83 per share

- 2022-12: $26.34 per share

- 2023-01: $27.47 per share

- 2023-02: $30.41 per share

- 2023-03: $29.32 per share

- 2023-04: $31.51 per share

- 2023-05: $32.12 per share

- 2023-06: $37.57 per share

- 2023-07: $35.92 per share

- 2023-08: $32.83 per share

- 2023-09: $33.52 per share

- 2023-10: $35.18 per share

- 2023-11: $35.54 per share

- 2023-12: $35.61 per share

- 2024-01: $42.98 per share

- 2024-02: $45.68 per share

- 2024-03: $52.02 per share

- 2024-04: $45.87 per share

- 2024-05: $47.70 per share

- 2024-06: $45.88 per share

- 2024-07: $50.52 per share

- 2024-08: $51.65 per share

- 2024-09: $42.25 per share

- 2024-10: $44.04 per share

- 2024-11: $58.14 per share

- 2024-12: $54.91 per share

- 2025-01: $58.54 per share

- 2025-02: $51.29 per share

- 2025-03: $44.62 per share

- 2025-04: $38.02 per share

- 2025-05: $41.30 per share

- 2025-06: $42.55 per share

- 2025-07: $34.94 per share

- 2025-08: $36.36 per share

- 2025-09: $31.47 per share

- 2025-10: $35.06 per share

- 2025-11: $40.25 per share

- 2025-12: $36.01 per share

- 2026-01: $35.98 per share

- 2026-02: $35.68 per share

- 2026-03: $32.17 per share

- 2026-04: $34.73 per share

- 2026-05: $33.33 per share

- 2026-06: $44.49 per share

- 2026-07: $45.96 per share

- 2026-08: $39.90 per share

- 2026-09: $40.14 per share

- 2026-10: $41.02 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887359/000162828026012013/vcel-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-26.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.