First Trust Advisors LP Acquires New Position in Artivion, Inc. (NYSE:AORT)

First Trust Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Artivion, Inc. (NYSE:AORT) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 166,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,771,000. First Trust Advisors LP owned 0.40% of Artivion as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Artivion by 346.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 70,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,888,000 after acquiring an additional 54,996 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC acquired a new stake in Artivion in the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,798,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Artivion by 394.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 97,903 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,606,000 after buying an additional 78,120 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Artivion by 113.7% in the 4th quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 63,029 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,802,000 after buying an additional 33,541 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Artivion by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 497 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Artivion

In other news, CFO Lance A. Berry sold 3,259 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.31, for a total value of $89,003.29. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 75,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,070,234.55. This represents a 4.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jean F. Holloway sold 5,335 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.31, for a total value of $145,698.85. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 149,799 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,091,010.69. This represents a 3.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 90,799 shares of company stock worth $2,356,223. 7.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Artivion Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE AORT opened at $23.41 on Friday. Artivion, Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.32 and a 12 month high of $32.33. The company has a market capitalization of $999.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1,170.70 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $23.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.22.

Artivion (NYSE:AORT) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The company reported ($0.39) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by ($0.51). The firm had revenue of $97.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $100.82 million. Artivion had a positive return on equity of 5.15% and a negative net margin of 0.22%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Artivion, Inc. will post 0.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AORT. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Artivion from $33.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Artivion from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $31.40.

About Artivion

Artivion, Inc manufactures, processes, and distributes medical devices and implantable human tissues worldwide. The company provides BioGlue, a polymer consisting of bovine blood protein and an agent for cross-linking proteins for cardiac, vascular, neurologic, and pulmonary procedures; cardiac preservation services; PhotoFix, a bovine pericardial patch; and aortic arch stent grafts including E-vita Open Plus and E-vita Open Neo.