StockNews.com Downgrades LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on LMAT. KeyCorp started coverage on LeMaitre Vascular in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. They issued a sector weight rating on the stock. Barrington Research raised their price objective on shares of LeMaitre Vascular from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, LeMaitre Vascular has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $68.20.

LeMaitre Vascular Price Performance

NASDAQ LMAT opened at $63.26 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.42 billion, a PE ratio of 47.21, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.87. LeMaitre Vascular has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $74.64. The business’s 50-day moving average is $65.09 and its 200 day moving average is $57.85.

LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The medical instruments supplier reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $48.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.01 million. LeMaitre Vascular had a return on equity of 10.57% and a net margin of 15.56%. LeMaitre Vascular’s quarterly revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that LeMaitre Vascular will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

LeMaitre Vascular Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a positive change from LeMaitre Vascular’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.01%. LeMaitre Vascular’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other LeMaitre Vascular news, Director Lawrence J. Jasinski sold 5,110 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $358,357.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Lawrence J. Jasinski sold 5,110 shares of LeMaitre Vascular stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.50, for a total transaction of $344,925.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 5,309 shares in the company, valued at $358,357.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George W. Lemaitre sold 36,600 shares of LeMaitre Vascular stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.03, for a total transaction of $2,489,898.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,187,526 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,817,393.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 114,036 shares of company stock worth $7,873,749 over the last three months. Company insiders own 12.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On LeMaitre Vascular

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 24.8% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 195,983 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $10,677,000 after purchasing an additional 38,958 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 2.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,510,567 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $82,296,000 after acquiring an additional 33,500 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,927,971 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $109,432,000 after acquiring an additional 10,390 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 52.6% during the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 32,745 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 11,280 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 152.9% during the third quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 13,857 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $755,000 after acquiring an additional 8,378 shares in the last quarter. 84.64% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

LeMaitre Vascular Company Profile

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.