Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) Short Interest Up 60.6% in April

Utah Medical Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UTMD) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 88,800 shares, a growth of 60.6% from the March 31st total of 55,300 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 29,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Utah Medical Products

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Utah Medical Products by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 389,831 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $33,525,000 after buying an additional 7,738 shares during the period. Ranger Investment Management L.P. increased its position in Utah Medical Products by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Ranger Investment Management L.P. now owns 77,591 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $6,535,000 after acquiring an additional 3,180 shares during the last quarter. Penn Mutual Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Utah Medical Products by 46.3% in the fourth quarter. Penn Mutual Asset Management LLC now owns 53,093 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $4,471,000 after acquiring an additional 16,810 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Utah Medical Products by 21.2% in the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 32,825 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,765,000 after acquiring an additional 5,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clean Yield Group boosted its stake in shares of Utah Medical Products by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 31,748 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,674,000 after purchasing an additional 485 shares during the period. 69.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on UTMD shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Utah Medical Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. TheStreet lowered Utah Medical Products from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th.

Utah Medical Products Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of UTMD opened at $65.92 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $69.51 and its 200 day moving average is $77.24. Utah Medical Products has a 12-month low of $65.91 and a 12-month high of $100.59. The company has a market capitalization of $236.65 million, a PE ratio of 14.65 and a beta of 0.12.

Utah Medical Products (NASDAQ:UTMD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The medical instruments supplier reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Utah Medical Products had a net margin of 33.40% and a return on equity of 13.15%. The company had revenue of $12.33 million for the quarter.

Utah Medical Products Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. Utah Medical Products’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.67%.

About Utah Medical Products

Utah Medical Products, Inc develops, manufactures, and distributes medical devices for the healthcare industry worldwide. It offers fetal monitoring accessories, vacuum-assisted delivery systems, and other labor and delivery tools; DISPOSA-HOOD infant respiratory hoods; and DELTRAN PLUS blood pressure monitoring systems.