Artivion’s (AORT) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Artivion (NYSE:AORT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $32.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 12.91% from the company’s current price.

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Artivion from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.40.

Artivion Trading Up 3.4 %

NYSE AORT opened at $28.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,417.10 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.88, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. Artivion has a 12-month low of $21.97 and a 12-month high of $32.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.19.

Artivion (NYSE:AORT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.06). Artivion had a positive return on equity of 5.15% and a negative net margin of 0.22%. The firm had revenue of $98.98 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.81 million. On average, analysts forecast that Artivion will post 0.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James P. Mackin sold 42,156 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.31, for a total transaction of $1,151,280.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 663,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,130,617.42. The trade was a 5.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider John E. Davis sold 6,457 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.31, for a total value of $176,340.67. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 160,631 shares in the company, valued at $4,386,832.61. The trade was a 3.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 90,799 shares of company stock worth $2,356,223. Insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AORT. Peregrine Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Artivion in the first quarter valued at approximately $7,650,000. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Artivion by 27.7% during the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,041,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,791,000 after acquiring an additional 226,160 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Artivion in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,573,000. First Trust Advisors LP acquired a new stake in Artivion during the fourth quarter worth about $4,771,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Artivion during the first quarter worth about $3,162,000. 86.37% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.