AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Oppenheimer

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) was upgraded by investment analysts at Oppenheimer from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $32.00 target price on the medical device company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 38.83% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of AtriCure from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of AtriCure from $50.00 to $42.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of AtriCure in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of AtriCure from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.63.

AtriCure Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ATRC opened at $23.05 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -34.92 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 2.66, a current ratio of 3.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. AtriCure has a 52 week low of $22.27 and a 52 week high of $59.61.

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The medical device company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.01. AtriCure had a negative net margin of 7.62% and a negative return on equity of 7.55%. The firm had revenue of $106.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $103.68 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.09) earnings per share. AtriCure’s revenue was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that AtriCure will post -0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Karl S. Dahlquist sold 8,231 shares of AtriCure stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.36, for a total value of $307,510.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 52,839 shares in the company, valued at $1,974,065.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other AtriCure news, insider Justin J. Noznesky sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.39, for a total transaction of $45,585.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 72,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,211,905.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Karl S. Dahlquist sold 8,231 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.36, for a total transaction of $307,510.16. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 52,839 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,974,065.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,116 shares of company stock worth $468,797 over the last 90 days. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of AtriCure

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 worth $170,100,000 after purchasing an additional 76,146 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in AtriCure by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,329,457 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $47,448,000 after purchasing an additional 95,824 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in AtriCure by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,001,161 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $35,734,000 after purchasing an additional 9,176 shares in the last quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in AtriCure by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. TimesSquare Capital Management LLC now owns 976,110 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $34,837,000 after purchasing an additional 71,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in AtriCure by 28.2% during the fourth quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 881,826 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $31,472,000 after purchasing an additional 193,769 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.11% of the company’s stock.

AtriCure Company Profile

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.