BNP Paribas Financial Markets Grows Stock Holdings in Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) by 46.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 190,135 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 60,407 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets owned about 0.27% of Stratasys worth $1,690,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Stratasys by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,399,898 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,445,000 after buying an additional 9,522 shares during the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Stratasys by 53.1% during the fourth quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,153,580 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,255,000 after buying an additional 400,000 shares during the last quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Stratasys by 64.6% during the fourth quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,086,337 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,658,000 after buying an additional 426,341 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Stratasys by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 941,407 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,369,000 after purchasing an additional 5,541 shares during the period. Finally, Formula Growth Ltd. lifted its position in Stratasys by 58.3% in the fourth quarter. Formula Growth Ltd. now owns 760,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,756,000 after purchasing an additional 280,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.77% of the company’s stock.

Stratasys Trading Up 0.9%

SSYS stock opened at $11.16 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $9.78 and a 200-day moving average of $9.79. Stratasys Ltd. has a 12-month low of $6.05 and a 12-month high of $12.88. The company has a market cap of $800.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.45 and a beta of 1.50.

Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The technology company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.01. Stratasys had a negative net margin of 16.13% and a negative return on equity of 3.75%. The company had revenue of $136.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.11 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.02) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Stratasys Ltd. will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SSYS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on shares of Stratasys from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Stratasys from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Stratasys from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Stratasys currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $12.20.

Stratasys Company Profile

Stratasys Ltd. provides connected polymer-based 3D printing solutions. It offers range of 3D printing systems, which includes polyjet printer, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers, stereolithography printing systems, origin P3 printers, and selective absorption fusion printer for additive manufacturing, and tooling and rapid prototyping for various vertical markets, such as automotive, aerospace, consumer products and healthcare.