LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) Upgraded to “Buy” at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report released on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $75.00 price target on the medical instruments supplier’s stock, up from their previous price target of $59.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barrington Research increased their price target on shares of LeMaitre Vascular from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of LeMaitre Vascular in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. They set a sector weight rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of LeMaitre Vascular from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $69.33.

LeMaitre Vascular Trading Up 3.9 %

LMAT stock opened at $65.46 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.85, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.87. LeMaitre Vascular has a 12 month low of $44.27 and a 12 month high of $74.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $65.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.10.

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

LeMaitre Vascular Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This is a positive change from LeMaitre Vascular’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. LeMaitre Vascular’s dividend payout ratio is 47.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other LeMaitre Vascular news, Director Lawrence J. Jasinski sold 5,110 shares of the 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 sale, the director now directly owns 5,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $358,357.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Lawrence J. Jasinski sold 5,110 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 5,309 shares in the company, valued at $358,357.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director John A. Roush sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.00, for a total transaction of $517,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,278 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $157,182. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 114,036 shares of company stock worth $7,873,749 in the last ninety days. 10.79% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of LeMaitre Vascular

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 0.3% during the first quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,932,917 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $128,268,000 after purchasing an additional 4,946 shares during the period. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in LeMaitre Vascular during the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. Shaker Investments LLC OH grew its stake in shares of LeMaitre Vascular by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Shaker Investments LLC OH now owns 13,658 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $906,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV acquired a new position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,359,000. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of LeMaitre Vascular in the 1st quarter worth approximately $401,000. 84.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.