MESIROW FINANCIAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Equity & Fixed Income Sells 70,500 Shares of National Instruments Co. (NASDAQ:NATI)

MESIROW FINANCIAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Equity & Fixed Income reduced its stake in National Instruments Co. (NASDAQ:NATI – Get Rating) by 23.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 224,290 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 70,500 shares during the period. MESIROW FINANCIAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Equity & Fixed Income owned 0.17% of National Instruments worth $9,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NATI. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of National Instruments by 924.2% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 932 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 841 shares during the period. Sageworth Trust Co of South Dakota bought a new stake in National Instruments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $61,000. KBC Group NV bought a new stake in National Instruments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in National Instruments during the 4th quarter worth approximately $81,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in National Instruments during the 1st quarter worth approximately $82,000. 89.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NATI has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of National Instruments from $42.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of National Instruments from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 1st. Finally, TheStreet cut shares of National Instruments from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.60.

National Instruments Stock Performance

Shares of NATI traded up $0.28 on Friday, reaching $39.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 549,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 858,783. National Instruments Co. has a 12-month low of $29.81 and a 12-month high of $45.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.50 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.49 and a quick ratio of 1.57.

National Instruments (NASDAQ:NATI – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The technology company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $395.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $388.98 million. National Instruments had a net margin of 6.71% and a return on equity of 15.63%. National Instruments’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.23 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that National Instruments Co. will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

National Instruments Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 8th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 5th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.84%. National Instruments’s dividend payout ratio is presently 143.59%.

Insider Activity

In other National Instruments news, EVP Jason Elliot Green sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.51, for a total value of $86,275.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 91,908 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,171,745.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 10,000 shares of company stock worth $366,650 over the last 90 days. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About National Instruments

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National Instruments Corporation provides a software-centric platform and systems to engineers and scientists worldwide. Its programming environments software includes NI LabVIEW, a graphical software platform to visualize hardware configuration, measurement data, and debugging of application; NI LabWindows/CVI, an ANSI C integrated development environment and engineering toolbox; and NI Measurement Studio, a suite of .NET tools for building engineering applications in Microsoft Visual Studio.