Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) Short Interest Up 19.1% in March

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 713,600 shares, an increase of 19.1% from the February 28th total of 599,200 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 620,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.2 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SSYS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on Stratasys from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised their price objective on Stratasys from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Stratasys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Stratasys presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.20.

Institutional Trading of Stratasys

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SSYS. Invenomic Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Stratasys in the third quarter valued at about $10,916,000. Penn Capital Management Company LLC purchased a new position in shares of Stratasys during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,376,000. RPG Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Stratasys by 64.6% during the 4th quarter. RPG Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,086,337 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,658,000 after purchasing an additional 426,341 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its holdings in Stratasys by 53.1% in the 4th quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 1,153,580 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,255,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Formula Growth Ltd. lifted its stake in Stratasys by 58.3% during the fourth quarter. Formula Growth Ltd. now owns 760,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,756,000 after purchasing an additional 280,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.77% of the company’s stock.

Stratasys Trading Up 1.3 %

SSYS traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $9.93. 82,754 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 578,034. The company has a market capitalization of $712.14 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.50 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.29. Stratasys has a 52-week low of $6.05 and a 52-week high of $12.88.

Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The technology company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $150.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.01 million. Stratasys had a negative net margin of 16.13% and a negative return on equity of 3.75%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.02 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Stratasys will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

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.