Short Interest in AtriCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC) Rises By 9.4%

AtriCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,250,000 shares, an increase of 9.4% from the March 15th total of 2,970,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 668,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.9 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on ATRC shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on AtriCure from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on AtriCure from $50.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of AtriCure in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded AtriCure from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.57.

AtriCure Stock Performance

Shares of ATRC opened at $23.10 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.57, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.20 and a beta of 1.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $31.60 and a 200 day moving average of $34.72. AtriCure has a 12 month low of $22.42 and a 12 month high of $59.61.

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The medical device company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.01. AtriCure had a negative return on equity of 7.55% and a negative net margin of 7.62%. The business had revenue of $106.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $103.68 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.09) earnings per share. AtriCure’s revenue was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AtriCure will post -0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AtriCure news, insider Karl S. Dahlquist sold 8,231 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.36, for a total value of $307,510.16. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 52,839 shares in the company, valued at $1,974,065.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Karl S. Dahlquist sold 8,231 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.36, for a total value of $307,510.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 52,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,974,065.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Justin J. Noznesky sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.72, for a total value of $55,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 74,284 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,727,708.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,116 shares of company stock worth $468,797. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AtriCure

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AtriCure by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,766,029 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $170,100,000 after purchasing an additional 76,146 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in AtriCure by 1.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,914,792 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $193,234,000 after purchasing an additional 58,501 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in AtriCure by 2.8% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,209,989 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $158,445,000 after purchasing an additional 86,485 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AtriCure by 17.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,865,409 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $188,171,000 after acquiring an additional 427,792 shares during the period. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AtriCure by 2.4% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,409,302 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $58,416,000 after acquiring an additional 33,348 shares during the period. 99.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About AtriCure

AtriCure, Inc develops, manufactures, and sells devices for surgical ablation of cardiac tissue, exclusion of the left atrial appendage, and temporarily blocking pain by ablating peripheral nerves to medical centers in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company offers Isolator Synergy Clamps, single-use disposable radio frequency products; multifunctional pens and linear ablation devices, such as the MAX Pen device that enables surgeons to evaluate cardiac arrhythmias, perform temporary cardiac pacing, sensing, and stimulation, and ablate cardiac tissue with the same device; and the Coolrail device, which enables users to make longer linear lines of ablation.