Short Interest in iRobot Co. (NASDAQ:IRBT) Expands By 12.4%

iRobot Co. (NASDAQ:IRBT) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,450,000 shares, a growth of 12.4% from the August 31st total of 4,850,000 shares. Approximately 19.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,080,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On iRobot

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of iRobot by 474.6% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,758 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 2,278 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of iRobot by 1,167.8% during the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,653 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 4,286 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of iRobot during the 2nd quarter valued at about $61,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of iRobot by 72.6% in the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 7,550 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 3,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in iRobot in the first quarter worth approximately $77,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.42% of the company’s stock.

iRobot Trading Up 1.5 %

iRobot stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $8.69. The stock had a trading volume of 763,543 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,944,850. iRobot has a twelve month low of $5.83 and a twelve month high of $42.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market cap of $249.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.12 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.91.

iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The industrial products company reported ($1.96) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.77) by ($0.19). The business had revenue of $166.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $168.73 million. iRobot had a negative net margin of 25.29% and a negative return on equity of 128.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 29.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.73) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that iRobot will post -4.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on IRBT. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of iRobot in a report on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com cut iRobot from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th.

iRobot Company Profile

iRobot Corporation designs, builds, and sells robots and home innovation products in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Japan, and internationally. The company offers floor care products, including Roomba floor vacuuming robots; Roomba accessories and consumables, such as the Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal, replacement dirt disposal bags for the Clean Base, filters, brushes, and batteries; Braava family of automatic floor mopping robots; and Braava accessories and consumables, which include cleaning solution, washable and disposable mopping pads, replacement tanks, and batteries, as well as subscription services.