LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Monday morning.

LMAT has been the topic of several other reports. Barrington Research boosted their price objective on shares of LeMaitre Vascular from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of LeMaitre Vascular in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. They set a sector weight rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $68.20.

LeMaitre Vascular Price Performance

Shares of LeMaitre Vascular stock opened at $65.20 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.27. LeMaitre Vascular has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $74.64.

LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. LeMaitre Vascular had a net margin of 15.56% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The business had revenue of $48.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.01 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. LeMaitre Vascular’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that LeMaitre Vascular will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

LeMaitre Vascular Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. This is an increase from LeMaitre Vascular’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. LeMaitre Vascular’s payout ratio is currently 47.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at LeMaitre Vascular

In other news, CFO Joseph P. Pellegrino, Jr. sold 36,967 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total transaction of $2,578,817.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 6,452 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $450,091.52. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Joseph P. Pellegrino, Jr. sold 36,967 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total transaction of $2,578,817.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,452 shares in the company, valued at approximately $450,091.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John A. Roush sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.00, for a total transaction of $517,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $157,182. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 114,036 shares of company stock valued at $7,873,749 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 12.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On LeMaitre Vascular

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. West Tower Group LLC increased its position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 201.3% during the fourth quarter. West Tower Group LLC now owns 467 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 312 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in LeMaitre Vascular by 555.3% during the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 616 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 522 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular in the third quarter valued at $31,000. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 111.7% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 633 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular in the third quarter valued at $38,000. 84.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

LeMaitre Vascular Company Profile

LeMaitre Vascular, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices and implants used in the field of vascular surgery worldwide. It offers human cadaver tissue cryopreservation services; angioscope, a fiberoptic catheter used for viewing the lumen of a blood vessel; embolectomy catheters to remove blood clots from arteries; thrombectomy catheters for removing thrombi in the venous system; occlusion catheters that temporarily occlude the blood flow; and perfusion catheters to perfuse the blood and other fluids into the vasculature.