Short Interest in Masimo Co. (NASDAQ:MASI) Drops By 20.6%

Masimo Co. (NASDAQ:MASI) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,740,000 shares, a drop of 20.6% from the December 15th total of 3,450,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 561,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.9 days. Approximately 5.6% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Masimo in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Masimo from $171.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $190.00 target price (up from $170.00) on shares of Masimo in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Masimo from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, BTIG Research raised their price objective on shares of Masimo from $166.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Masimo currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.67.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Masimo

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MASI. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Masimo by 47.1% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 228 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Masimo by 4.9% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Masimo by 180.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 191 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Masimo by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,183 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $158,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Masimo by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 19,182 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,206,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. 85.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Masimo Price Performance

Masimo stock traded up $2.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $172.29. 616,441 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 542,867. The company has a market capitalization of $9.22 billion, a PE ratio of 118.82 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day moving average of $169.03 and a 200 day moving average of $139.75. Masimo has a 1-year low of $101.61 and a 1-year high of $180.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Masimo (NASDAQ:MASI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical equipment provider reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $504.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $502.87 million. Masimo had a net margin of 3.85% and a return on equity of 14.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Masimo will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Masimo Company Profile

Masimo Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets various patient monitoring technologies, and automation and connectivity solutions worldwide. The company offers masimo signal extraction technology (SET) pulse oximetry with measure-through motion and low perfusion pulse oximetry monitoring to address the primary limitations of conventional pulse oximetry; Masimo rainbow SET platform, including rainbow SET Pulse CO-Oximetry products that allows noninvasive monitoring of carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, hemoglobin concentration, fractional arterial oxygen saturation, oxygen content, pleth variability index, rainbow pleth variability index, respiration rate from the pleth, and oxygen reserve index, as well as acoustic respiration monitoring, SedLine brain function monitoring, NomoLine capnography and gas monitoring, and regional oximetry.