AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) Trading Down 5.5% Following Insider Selling

AtriCure, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATRC) fell 5.5% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $20.78 and last traded at $20.99. 552,345 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 22% from the average session volume of 708,007 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.22.

Specifically, insider Justin J. Noznesky sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.72, for a total transaction of $55,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 74,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,727,708.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Justin J. Noznesky sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.72, for a total transaction of $55,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 74,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,727,708.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Karl S. Dahlquist sold 1,885 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.16, for a total transaction of $60,621.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 50,954 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,638,680.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,616 shares of company stock worth $504,932 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ATRC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of AtriCure from $57.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of AtriCure from $42.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised shares of AtriCure from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $32.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of AtriCure from $46.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AtriCure from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AtriCure has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.78.

AtriCure Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 2.66 and a current ratio of 3.57. The company has a market cap of $994.16 million, a PE ratio of -26.11 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.11.

AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The medical device company reported ($0.25) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.23) by ($0.02). AtriCure had a negative net margin of 8.98% and a negative return on equity of 7.82%. The business had revenue of $108.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $106.86 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.23) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AtriCure, Inc. will post -0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AtriCure

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 65.7% during the 1st quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 35,813 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $1,089,000 after purchasing an additional 14,194 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AtriCure during the 1st quarter worth $258,000. Norden Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AtriCure during the 1st quarter worth $440,000. WCM Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 222,843 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $6,779,000 after purchasing an additional 1,427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of AtriCure by 71.6% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 444,801 shares of the medical device company’s stock worth $13,531,000 after purchasing an additional 185,632 shares during the last quarter. 99.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.