Needham & Company LLC Cuts AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) Price Target to $34.00

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) had its target price decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $40.00 to $34.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the medical device company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 54.55% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on ATRC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on AtriCure from $42.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer raised AtriCure from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on AtriCure from $57.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.63.

AtriCure Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ATRC opened at $22.00 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 4.00, a quick ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. AtriCure has a twelve month low of $18.94 and a twelve month high of $57.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $22.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $27.06. The stock has a market cap of $1.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -27.50 and a beta of 1.44.

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The medical device company reported ($0.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.17). The business had revenue of $116.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $116.24 million. AtriCure had a negative return on equity of 7.85% and a negative net margin of 8.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.12) earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AtriCure will post -0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Salvatore Privitera bought 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 30th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $22.25 per share, for a total transaction of $111,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 103,290 shares in the company, valued at $2,298,202.50. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of AtriCure

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ATRC. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 0.8% in the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 380,720 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $8,669,000 after acquiring an additional 2,898 shares in the last quarter. HighMark Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 664.1% in the second quarter. HighMark Wealth Management LLC now owns 69,725 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $1,588,000 after acquiring an additional 60,600 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 8.2% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 309,547 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $7,048,000 after acquiring an additional 23,436 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 4.7% in the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 34,980 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $796,000 after acquiring an additional 1,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Comerica Bank lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 70.5% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 2,522 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $77,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043 shares in the last quarter. 99.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.