Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) Short Interest Down 23.6% in February

Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 599,200 shares, a drop of 23.6% from the February 13th total of 784,300 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 671,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.9 days.

Institutional Trading of Stratasys

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Formidable Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Stratasys by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 24,545 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $218,000 after buying an additional 965 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Stratasys by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 105,578 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $877,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Stratasys by 1.9% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 80,454 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $669,000 after purchasing an additional 1,525 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its position in shares of Stratasys by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 16,664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,564 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Stratasys by 4.6% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 56,176 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $467,000 after purchasing an additional 2,483 shares during the last quarter. 75.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Stratasys Price Performance

NASDAQ:SSYS traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $9.94. 61,221 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 569,018. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $10.33 and its 200-day moving average is $9.00. The stock has a market cap of $713.14 million, a P/E ratio of -7.54 and a beta of 1.28. Stratasys has a 1-year low of $6.05 and a 1-year high of $12.88.

Stratasys (NASDAQ:SSYS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The technology company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.01. Stratasys had a negative net margin of 16.13% and a negative return on equity of 3.75%. The firm had revenue of $150.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $151.01 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.02 earnings per share. Stratasys’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Stratasys will post -0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Stratasys from $12.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Stratasys from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, March 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Stratasys currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.20.

About Stratasys

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.