Groupe la Francaise Purchases Shares of 60,000 AstroNova, Inc. $ALOT

Groupe la Francaise bought a new stake in shares of AstroNova, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALOT) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 60,000 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,708,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in AstroNova by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 74,138 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $859,000 after buying an additional 1,036 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of AstroNova during the 2nd quarter worth $140,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AstroNova by 2.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 352,131 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,606,000 after purchasing an additional 9,533 shares during the period. Susquehanna International Group LLP bought a new position in AstroNova in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $143,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in AstroNova by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 103,749 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,207 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 43.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ALOT has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AstroNova from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of AstroNova in a report on Friday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Sell rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Sell”.

AstroNova Stock Performance

Shares of AstroNova stock opened at $28.99 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.76. AstroNova, Inc. has a 52-week low of $6.96 and a 52-week high of $29.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $28.80 and a 200-day moving average of $19.14. The stock has a market cap of $227.31 million, a PE ratio of -161.05 and a beta of 0.85.

AstroNova (NASDAQ:ALOT) last released its earnings results on Monday, June 8th. The business services provider reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $39.36 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.67 million. AstroNova had a positive return on equity of 2.94% and a negative net margin of 0.88%.During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.05) earnings per share.

About AstroNova

AstroNova, Inc is a global provider of precision graphic communications equipment and identification solutions. The company operates two primary business segments: the NovaTech division, which designs and manufactures high‐speed data acquisition, recording and analysis systems for industrial, power generation, oil and gas, aerospace and defense markets; and the AstroNova division, which offers digital color label printing and packaging solutions under brands such as QuickLabel and RTag. These products are engineered to support mission‐critical applications that require reliable data capture or product identification across complex supply chains.

Headquartered in West Warwick, Rhode Island, AstroNova traces its heritage to the development of ruggedized oscillographs and recording instruments for industrial clients.