diff --git a/scripts/__tests__/version-utils-test.js b/scripts/__tests__/version-utils-test.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..cc5c8d54d323ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/__tests__/version-utils-test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ *
+ * @format
+ */
+
+const {parseVersion} = require('../version-utils');
+
+describe('version-utils', () => {
+  describe('parseVersion', () => {
+    it('should throw error if invalid match', () => {
+      function testInvalidVersion() {
+        parseVersion('<invalid version>');
+      }
+      expect(testInvalidVersion).toThrowErrorMatchingInlineSnapshot(
+        `"You must pass a correctly formatted version; couldn't parse <invalid version>"`,
+      );
+    });
+
+    it('should parse pre-release version with .', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} =
+        parseVersion('0.66.0-rc.4');
+      expect(version).toBe('0.66.0-rc.4');
+      expect(major).toBe('0');
+      expect(minor).toBe('66');
+      expect(patch).toBe('0');
+      expect(prerelease).toBe('rc.4');
+    });
+
+    it('should parse pre-release version with -', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} =
+        parseVersion('0.66.0-rc-4');
+      expect(version).toBe('0.66.0-rc-4');
+      expect(major).toBe('0');
+      expect(minor).toBe('66');
+      expect(patch).toBe('0');
+      expect(prerelease).toBe('rc-4');
+    });
+
+    it('should parse stable version', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} = parseVersion('0.66.0');
+      expect(version).toBe('0.66.0');
+      expect(major).toBe('0');
+      expect(minor).toBe('66');
+      expect(patch).toBe('0');
+      expect(prerelease).toBeUndefined();
+    });
+    it('should parse pre-release version from tag', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} =
+        parseVersion('v0.66.1-rc.4');
+      expect(version).toBe('0.66.1-rc.4');
+      expect(major).toBe('0');
+      expect(minor).toBe('66');
+      expect(patch).toBe('1');
+      expect(prerelease).toBe('rc.4');
+    });
+
+    it('should parse stable version from tag', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} =
+        parseVersion('v0.66.0');
+      expect(version).toBe('0.66.0');
+      expect(major).toBe('0');
+      expect(minor).toBe('66');
+      expect(patch).toBe('0');
+      expect(prerelease).toBeUndefined();
+    });
+
+    it('should parse nightly fake version', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} = parseVersion('0.0.0');
+      expect(version).toBe('0.0.0');
+      expect(major).toBe('0');
+      expect(minor).toBe('0');
+      expect(patch).toBe('0');
+      expect(prerelease).toBeUndefined();
+    });
+
+    it('should parse dryrun fake version', () => {
+      const {version, major, minor, patch, prerelease} =
+        parseVersion('1000.0.0');
+      expect(version).toBe('1000.0.0');
+      expect(major).toBe('1000');
+      expect(minor).toBe('0');
+      expect(patch).toBe('0');
+      expect(prerelease).toBeUndefined();
+    });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/scripts/bump-oss-version.js b/scripts/bump-oss-version.js
index e7887d9fb240b4..553109e7a3c382 100755
--- a/scripts/bump-oss-version.js
+++ b/scripts/bump-oss-version.js
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 const fs = require('fs');
 const {cat, echo, exec, exit, sed} = require('shelljs');
 const yargs = require('yargs');
+const {parseVersion} = require('./version-utils');
 
 let argv = yargs
   .option('r', {
@@ -33,6 +34,11 @@ let argv = yargs
   .option('v', {
     alias: 'to-version',
     type: 'string',
+  })
+  .option('l', {
+    alias: 'latest',
+    type: 'boolean',
+    default: false,
   }).argv;
 
 const nightlyBuild = argv.nightly;
@@ -68,15 +74,16 @@ if (!nightlyBuild) {
   }
 }
 
-// Generate version files to detect mismatches between JS and native.
-let match = version.match(/^(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)(?:-(.+))?$/);
-if (!match) {
-  echo(
-    `You must pass a correctly formatted version; couldn't parse ${version}`,
-  );
+let major,
+  minor,
+  patch,
+  prerelease = -1;
+try {
+  ({major, minor, patch, prerelease} = parseVersion(version));
+} catch (e) {
+  echo(e.message);
   exit(1);
 }
-let [, major, minor, patch, prerelease] = match;
 
 fs.writeFileSync(
   'ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/modules/systeminfo/ReactNativeVersion.java',
@@ -227,8 +234,9 @@ if (!nightlyBuild) {
   let remote = argv.remote;
   exec(`git push ${remote} v${version}`);
 
-  // Tag latest if doing stable release
-  if (version.indexOf('rc') === -1) {
+  // Tag latest if doing stable release.
+  // This will also tag npm release as `latest`
+  if (prerelease == null && argv.latest) {
     exec('git tag -d latest');
     exec(`git push ${remote} :latest`);
     exec('git tag latest');
diff --git a/scripts/publish-npm.js b/scripts/publish-npm.js
index 86e83fd59e71c0..d965724c7b1689 100644
--- a/scripts/publish-npm.js
+++ b/scripts/publish-npm.js
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 'use strict';
 
 /**
- * This script publishes a new version of react-native to NPM.
+ * This script prepares a release version of react-native and may publish to NPM.
  * It is supposed to run in CI environment, not on a developer's machine.
  *
  * To make it easier for developers it uses some logic to identify with which
@@ -49,11 +49,14 @@
  * If tag v0.XY.Z is present on the commit then publish to npm with version 0.XY.Z and no tag (npm will consider it latest)
  */
 
-/*eslint-disable no-undef */
-require('shelljs/global');
+const {exec, echo, exit, test} = require('shelljs');
 const yargs = require('yargs');
+const {parseVersion} = require('./version-utils');
 
-let argv = yargs
+const buildTag = process.env.CIRCLE_TAG;
+const otp = process.env.NPM_CONFIG_OTP;
+
+const argv = yargs
   .option('n', {
     alias: 'nightly',
     type: 'boolean',
@@ -64,75 +67,54 @@ let argv = yargs
     type: 'boolean',
     default: false,
   }).argv;
-
 const nightlyBuild = argv.nightly;
 const dryRunBuild = argv.dryRun;
-const buildFromMain = nightlyBuild || dryRunBuild;
-const buildTag = process.env.CIRCLE_TAG;
-const otp = process.env.NPM_CONFIG_OTP;
-
-let branchVersion = 0;
-if (buildFromMain) {
-  branchVersion = 0;
-} else {
-  if (!buildTag) {
-    echo('Error: We publish only from git tags');
-    exit(1);
-  }
-
-  let match = buildTag.match(/^v(\d+\.\d+)\.\d+(?:-.+)?$/);
-  if (!match) {
-    echo('Error: We publish only from release version git tags');
-    exit(1);
-  }
-  [, branchVersion] = match;
-}
-// 0.33
 
 // 34c034298dc9cad5a4553964a5a324450fda0385
-const currentCommit = exec('git rev-parse HEAD', {silent: true}).stdout.trim();
-
-// Note: We rely on tagsWithVersion to be alphabetically sorted
-// [34c034298dc9cad5a4553964a5a324450fda0385, refs/heads/0.33-stable, refs/tags/latest, refs/tags/v0.33.1, refs/tags/v0.34.1-rc]
-const tagsWithVersion = exec(`git ls-remote origin | grep ${currentCommit}`, {
+const currentCommit = exec('git rev-parse HEAD', {
   silent: true,
-})
-  .stdout.split(/\s/)
-  // ['refs/tags/v0.33.0', 'refs/tags/v0.33.0-rc', 'refs/tags/v0.33.0-rc1', 'refs/tags/v0.33.0-rc2', 'refs/tags/v0.34.0']
-  .filter(
-    version =>
-      !!version && version.indexOf(`refs/tags/v${branchVersion}`) === 0,
-  )
-  // ['refs/tags/v0.33.0', 'refs/tags/v0.33.0-rc', 'refs/tags/v0.33.0-rc1', 'refs/tags/v0.33.0-rc2']
-  .filter(version => version.indexOf(branchVersion) !== -1)
-  // ['0.33.0', '0.33.0-rc', '0.33.0-rc1', '0.33.0-rc2']
-  .map(version => version.slice('refs/tags/v'.length));
-
-if (!buildFromMain && tagsWithVersion.length === 0) {
-  echo(
-    'Error: Cannot find version tag in current commit. To deploy to NPM you must add tag v0.XY.Z[-rc] to your commit',
-  );
+}).stdout.trim();
+const shortCommit = currentCommit.slice(0, 9);
+
+const rawVersion =
+  // 0.0.0 triggers issues with cocoapods for codegen when building template project.
+  dryRunBuild
+    ? '1000.0.0'
+    : // For nightly we continue to use 0.0.0 for clarity for npm
+    nightlyBuild
+    ? '0.0.0'
+    : // For pre-release and stable releases, we use the git tag of the version we're releasing (set in bump-oss-version)
+      buildTag;
+
+let version,
+  major,
+  minor,
+  prerelease = null;
+try {
+  ({version, major, minor, prerelease} = parseVersion(rawVersion));
+} catch (e) {
+  echo(e.message);
   exit(1);
 }
 
 let releaseVersion;
+if (dryRunBuild) {
+  releaseVersion = `${version}-${shortCommit}`;
+} else if (nightlyBuild) {
+  // 2021-09-28T05:38:40.669Z -> 20210928-0538
+  const dateIdentifier = new Date()
+    .toISOString()
+    .slice(0, -8)
+    .replace(/[-:]/g, '')
+    .replace(/[T]/g, '-');
+  releaseVersion = `${version}-${dateIdentifier}-${shortCommit}`;
+} else {
+  releaseVersion = version;
+}
 
-if (buildFromMain) {
-  if (nightlyBuild) {
-    releaseVersion = '0.0.0-';
-    // 2021-09-28T05:38:40.669Z -> 20210928-0538
-    releaseVersion += new Date()
-      .toISOString()
-      .slice(0, -8)
-      .replace(/[-:]/g, '')
-      .replace(/[T]/g, '-');
-  } else {
-    // 0.0.0 triggers issues with cocoapods for codegen for building template project.
-    releaseVersion = '1000.0.0';
-  }
-
-  releaseVersion += `-${currentCommit.slice(0, 9)}`;
-  // Bump version number in various files (package.json, gradle.properties etc)
+// Bump version number in various files (package.json, gradle.properties etc)
+// For stable, pre-release releases, we manually call bump-oss-version on release branch
+if (nightlyBuild || dryRunBuild) {
   if (
     exec(
       `node scripts/bump-oss-version.js --nightly --to-version ${releaseVersion}`,
@@ -141,14 +123,6 @@ if (buildFromMain) {
     echo('Failed to bump version number');
     exit(1);
   }
-} else if (tagsWithVersion[0].indexOf('-rc') === -1) {
-  // if first tag on this commit is non -rc then we are making a stable release
-  // '0.33.0'
-  releaseVersion = tagsWithVersion[0];
-} else {
-  // otherwise pick last -rc tag, indicates latest rc version due to alpha-sort
-  // '0.33.0-rc2'
-  releaseVersion = tagsWithVersion[tagsWithVersion.length - 1];
 }
 
 // -------- Generating Android Artifacts with JavaDoc
@@ -183,12 +157,24 @@ if (dryRunBuild) {
   exit(0);
 }
 
-// if version contains -rc, tag as prerelease
+// Running to see if this commit has been git tagged as `latest`
+const latestCommit = exec("git rev-list -n 1 'latest'", {
+  silent: true,
+}).stdout.replace('\n', '');
+const isLatest = currentCommit === latestCommit;
+
+const releaseBranch = `${major}.${minor}-stable`;
+
+// Set the right tag for nightly and prerelease builds
+// If a release is not git-tagged as `latest` we use `releaseBranch` to prevent
+// npm from overriding the current `latest` version tag, which it will do if no tag is set.
 const tagFlag = nightlyBuild
   ? '--tag nightly'
-  : releaseVersion.indexOf('-rc') === -1
-  ? ''
-  : '--tag next';
+  : prerelease != null
+  ? '--tag next'
+  : isLatest
+  ? '--tag latest'
+  : `--tag ${releaseBranch}`;
 
 // use otp from envvars if available
 const otpFlag = otp ? `--otp ${otp}` : '';
@@ -200,4 +186,3 @@ if (exec(`npm publish ${tagFlag} ${otpFlag}`).code) {
   echo(`Published to npm ${releaseVersion}`);
   exit(0);
 }
-/*eslint-enable no-undef */
diff --git a/scripts/version-utils.js b/scripts/version-utils.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..2be7394398a9e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/version-utils.js
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/**
+ * Copyright (c) Facebook, Inc. and its affiliates.
+ *
+ * This source code is licensed under the MIT license found in the
+ * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
+ *
+ * @format
+ */
+
+function parseVersion(versionStr) {
+  const match = versionStr.match(/^v?((\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)(?:-(.+))?)$/);
+  if (!match) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `You must pass a correctly formatted version; couldn't parse ${versionStr}`,
+    );
+  }
+  const [, version, major, minor, patch, prerelease] = match;
+  return {
+    version,
+    major,
+    minor,
+    patch,
+    prerelease,
+  };
+}
+
+module.exports = {
+  parseVersion,
+};