Short Interest in AtriCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC) Grows By 13.2%

AtriCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC – Get Rating) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,800,000 shares, a growth of 13.2% from the February 13th total of 1,590,000 shares. Currently, 4.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 303,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on ATRC shares. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on AtriCure from $81.00 to $74.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on AtriCure from $55.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. BTIG Research decreased their target price on AtriCure from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 target price on shares of AtriCure in a research note on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on AtriCure in a research note on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AtriCure currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.17.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AtriCure

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AtriCure by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,259,364 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $279,713,000 after acquiring an additional 25,066 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of AtriCure by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 4,048,823 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $158,309,000 after buying an additional 46,474 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of AtriCure by 17.5% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,865,409 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $188,171,000 after buying an additional 427,792 shares during the period. First Light Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AtriCure by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,494,655 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $58,441,000 after buying an additional 15,029 shares during the period. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of AtriCure by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,375,954 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $61,065,000 after buying an additional 13,588 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.27% of the company’s stock.

AtriCure Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ATRC opened at $39.14 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.69 and a quick ratio of 2.90. AtriCure has a 1 year low of $32.51 and a 1 year high of $68.58. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.75 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.12. The company has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -38.75 and a beta of 1.31.

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 21st. The medical device company reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $88.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.90 million. AtriCure had a negative return on equity of 10.18% and a negative net margin of 14.06%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.30) EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that AtriCure will post -1.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AtriCure Company Profile

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AtriCure, Inc engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of surgical ablation of cardiac tissue, and systems for the exclusion of the left atrial appendage. Its products include radio frequency (RF) ablation pacing and sensing, cryo, left atrial appendage management, soft tissue dissection, estech surgical instrumentation, and cart configuration.