StockNews.com Upgrades LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) to Buy

LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. KeyCorp initiated coverage on LeMaitre Vascular in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of LeMaitre Vascular from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $59.00 to $75.00 in a report on Friday, April 26th. Barrington Research boosted their target price on shares of LeMaitre Vascular from $69.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of LeMaitre Vascular from $72.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, LeMaitre Vascular currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $73.83.

LeMaitre Vascular Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LMAT traded up $7.45 on Friday, hitting $74.22. The stock had a trading volume of 329,984 shares, compared to its average volume of 116,703. The company has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.88. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $65.93 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.71. LeMaitre Vascular has a twelve month low of $44.27 and a twelve month high of $74.64.

LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.05. LeMaitre Vascular had a net margin of 15.56% and a return on equity of 10.57%. The firm had revenue of $53.48 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.50 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that LeMaitre Vascular will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lawrence J. Jasinski sold 5,110 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.50, for a total value of $344,925.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 5,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $358,357.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lawrence J. Jasinski sold 5,110 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.50, for a total value of $344,925.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $358,357.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Joseph P. Pellegrino, Jr. sold 36,967 shares of LeMaitre Vascular stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.76, for a total transaction of $2,578,817.92. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,452 shares in the company, valued at approximately $450,091.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 114,036 shares of company stock valued at $7,873,749. Company insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of LeMaitre Vascular

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BluePath Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of LeMaitre Vascular during the third quarter worth about $31,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in LeMaitre Vascular in the first quarter valued at approximately $36,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 325.5% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 685 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 524 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whitegate Investment Counselors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of LeMaitre Vascular during the first quarter worth $216,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.64% of the company’s stock.

About LeMaitre Vascular

LeMaitre Vascular, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices and implants used in the field of vascular surgery worldwide. It offers human cadaver tissue cryopreservation services; angioscope, a fiberoptic catheter used for viewing the lumen of a blood vessel; embolectomy catheters to remove blood clots from arteries; thrombectomy catheters for removing thrombi in the venous system; occlusion catheters that temporarily occlude the blood flow; and perfusion catheters to perfuse the blood and other fluids into the vasculature.