Artivion, Inc. (NYSE:AORT) Short Interest Up 6.9% in July

Artivion, Inc. (NYSE:AORT) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,080,000 shares, an increase of 6.9% from the June 30th total of 2,880,000 shares. Approximately 7.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 226,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 13.6 days.

Artivion Stock Performance

Shares of AORT traded down $0.66 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $26.49. The company had a trading volume of 95,214 shares, compared to its average volume of 222,032. The company has a current ratio of 6.04, a quick ratio of 4.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Artivion has a one year low of $12.16 and a one year high of $29.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $25.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.76.

Artivion (NYSE:AORT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $97.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $92.30 million. Artivion had a positive return on equity of 3.64% and a negative net margin of 2.61%. Equities research analysts expect that Artivion will post 0.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AORT. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in Artivion by 108.8% during the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,083,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,928,000 after buying an additional 564,549 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Artivion by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,686,502 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,156,000 after buying an additional 80,214 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Artivion by 8.1% during the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 570,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,066,000 after purchasing an additional 42,705 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Artivion by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,664,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,388,000 after purchasing an additional 33,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Artivion during the 4th quarter valued at about $349,000. 86.37% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AORT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Lake Street Capital boosted their price objective on Artivion from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Artivion from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Artivion from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th.

About Artivion

Artivion, Inc manufactures, processes, and distributes medical devices and implantable human tissues worldwide. The company provides BioGlue, a polymer consisting of bovine blood protein and an agent for cross-linking proteins for cardiac, vascular, neurologic, and pulmonary procedures; cardiac preservation services; PhotoFix, a bovine pericardial patch; and aortic arch stent grafts including E-vita Open Plus and E-vita Open Neo.