Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) Short Interest Up 19.1% in March

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 713,600 shares, a growth of 19.1% from the February 28th total of 599,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 620,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.2 days. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on SSYS. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Stratasys from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com cut Stratasys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald increased their target price on shares of Stratasys from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.20.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Stratasys

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Stratasys during the third quarter worth $90,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in shares of Stratasys by 785.6% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 129,728 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 115,080 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Stratasys during the 3rd quarter valued at about $322,000. Invenomic Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Stratasys in the third quarter worth about $10,916,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Stratasys in the third quarter worth about $210,000. Institutional investors own 75.77% of the company’s stock.

Stratasys Stock Performance

Shares of SSYS stock opened at $9.98 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $10.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $715.73 million, a PE ratio of -7.56 and a beta of 1.28. Stratasys has a 52-week low of $6.05 and a 52-week high of $12.88.

Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The technology company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.01. Stratasys had a negative return on equity of 3.75% and a negative net margin of 16.13%. The firm had revenue of $150.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $151.01 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Stratasys will post -0.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Stratasys Company Profile

Stratasys Ltd. provides connected polymer-based 3D printing solutions. It offers range of 3D printing systems, which includes polyjet printer, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers, stereolithography printing systems, origin P3 printers, and selective absorption fusion printer for additive manufacturing, and tooling and rapid prototyping for various vertical markets, such as automotive, aerospace, consumer products and healthcare.