AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) Sets New 52-Week High on Analyst Upgrade

AtriCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on the stock from $40.00 to $51.00. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock. AtriCure traded as high as $41.05 and last traded at $39.50, with a volume of 782535 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $39.63.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on ATRC. UBS Group upped their price target on AtriCure from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on AtriCure from $53.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on AtriCure from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of AtriCure in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AtriCure currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.38.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Calamos Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of AtriCure by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 110,671 shares of the medical device company’s stock valued at $3,382,000 after acquiring an additional 24,147 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AtriCure in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $60,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in AtriCure in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $89,000. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in AtriCure by 65.3% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,360 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of AtriCure by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 14,751 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $414,000 after buying an additional 265 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.11% of the company’s stock.

AtriCure Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 3.62 and a quick ratio of 2.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -48.89 and a beta of 1.42.

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The medical device company reported ($0.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.02. AtriCure had a negative net margin of 8.70% and a negative return on equity of 8.12%. The company had revenue of $115.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $112.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.20) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that AtriCure, Inc. will post -0.75 EPS for the current year.

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.